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BY THOMAS H. M'CANN, 
OF HOBOK15N, N. J. 



Sergeant of Company "C," Ninetieth Regiment, New York 
State Veteran Volunteers, Nineteentii Army Corps, United 
States Army — November 19, 1861, to February 9, 1866. 



THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 



: fl 





1861 



1915 



Served from November 19th, 1861 
To February 9th, 1866. 



( 3ob ^riiit 1315 ) 



^ 



THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL, WAR 



PUBLISHER'S NOTE 



This story appeared originally in the Hudson 
Observer, of Hudson County, N. J., June, July and 
August, 1915, and is reproduced in book form by 
the kind permission of the publishers of that paper, 
to whom the author extends his thanks. 



THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 



Dedicated 
To the Po.stcrlti/ of ''The Blue and the Gray:' 

"So with an equal splendor, 

The niorninij;- sun rays fall, 
With a tonch impartially tender, 

On the blossoms blooming for all: 
Under the sod and the dew, 

Waiting the Judgment Day, 
BroidercMl with gold the Blue, 

Mello\\'ed with gold the Gray." 

—Francis Milea Finch. 



THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 



CONTENTS. 

Preface, Including ]iil>li(jgrai)hy. 
Chapters. Page. 

I. The CauscH of the War 9 

II. . General Survey of the War 19 

III. The Contest for the Border States, ISOl 24 

IV. Naval Affairs to the Merrimac-Monitor Fight, 1S(U 

and lS(i2 39 

V. Western Campaigns of 1S<J2 45 

VI. Gulf Campaigns of lSii2 57 

VII. Eastern Campaigns of 1S(J2 G3 

VIII. The Vicksburg Campaign, 1,S«3 78 

IX. The Gulf Campaigns. 1863 S6 

X. Campaigns of the Army of the Potomac in Virginia. 
Lee's Campaign. — Chancellorsville, Gettysburg 
to End of 1803 101 

XI, Naval Operations, lS(i3 112 

XII. The Chattanooga Campaign, 1SG3 114 

XIII. Campaigns in the West and Southwest, 1SG4 123 

XIV. Slierman's Atlanta Campaign, 1S64 136 

XV. Hood's Tennessee Campaign. 1864 148 

XVI. Naval Operations, 1864-1865 154 

XVII. Sherman's March to the Sea, 1864 IGl 

XVIII. Grant's Campaign Against Richmond. 1S64 165 

XIX. Sheridan's Shenandoah Valley Campaign, 18ii4 185 

XX. Tiie Fall of Richmond, 1865 203 

XXI, Closing Campaigns of the War, 1865 213 

Index. 



THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 



PREFACE. 

This work is intended to be a brief recital of the principal campaigns 
of the Union and Confederate Armies which took place during the 
American Civil War from 1861 to 1865. Its main object is to impart to 
the children of "The Blue and The Gray" an outline of the famous 
military operations, free from analysis, comment or reflection that in 
any way might give rise to acrimony. Fortunately to this end, the 
writer finds, except in matters of detail, a general unanimity in the 
numerouse accounts of these military movements as given in official 
reports and in the writings of both Northern and Southern contem- 
poraneous historians, as well as in the memoirs of the military leaders 
of both sides, in which the vast literature of the great war abounds. The 
writer has written the history of General Banks' Gulf campaigns and 
General Sheridan's Shenandoah campaigns from the point of view of a 
soldier who fought in them, and he trusts that these personal 
reminiscences will be generously pardoned as his slight original contribu- 
tion to the history of the war. 

The number of encounters, large and small, which occurred between 
the combatants during those memorable four years of United States 
History has been placed by most authorities at nearly 7,000. But as 
only the principal battles alone can be narrated in a work of this kind, 
many of the living participants who chance to read this story should 
not feel disappointed and aggrieved at not finding mention of achieve- 
ments and feats of valor in which they were active agents. 

Since matters of political history, while interesting and illuminating, 
do not necessarily enter into a recital of military and naval affairs, they 
have been omitted in order to avoid asperity. Readers who desire to 
learn the political aspects of the Civil War are referred to the many 
works upon the subject such as "The American Conflict" by Horace 
Greeley, a Northern view, and "The War Between the States" by Alex- 
ander H. Stephens, a Southern view. Still it was deemed necessary 
by the present author to begin his work with a short synopsis of the 
leading events in the history of the Republic which had direct bearing 
upon the military climax of the great political contest which was waged 
between the North and the South from the very beginning of the 
Republic. 

Most historians of the war recite the events chronologically, that is 
breaking from the campaigns of one section to describe those of another. 
We, however, have departed from this order, believing that a continuous 
account of each section will impress on the memories of the readers 
a clearer and more comprehensive conception of these intricate affairs. 

Below is given a partial list of the works consulted in preparing this 
book. It may, and no doubt will be found that mention of the writer's 
sources has at times been omitted, but this he assures the reader is 
through inadvertence, since he has at all times conscientiously endeavered 
to cite his authorities. 



THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. 



Adams, Charles Francis, 2nd. - - American Statesmen 

Bryant, William Cullen - - - History of the United States 

Buell, Augusta C. - - - - - The Cannoneer 

Chadwick, French E. - - - - Cause of the Civil War 

Childe, E. Lee ------ Life of General Lee 

Mrs. Victoria V. Clayton - - - White arid Black in the old regime 

--. . -r « / Jiise and Fall of the Confederate Gov- 

Davis, Jefferson - - - - - -l 

{. ernment 

Dodge, Theodore A. - - - - - Bird's-Eye View of the Civil War 

Draper, John W. ----- History of the Civil War 

Eggleston, George Cary - - - History of the Confederate War 

Gordon, Gen. George H. - - - A War Diary, -1863-1865 

Greeley, Horace ----- The American Conflict 

Invins, Richard B. - . . - History of the Nineteenth Corps 

Johnston, Alexander - - - - History of American Politics 

Logan, Gen. John A. - - - - The Great Conspiracy 

Longstreet, Gen, James - - - From Manassas to Appomattox 

Lossing, Benson J. - - - - History of the Civil War 

Miller, Marion Mills - - - . Great Debates in American History 

Motley, John Lothrop . . - Cause of the Civil War. 

Paris, the Compte de - - - - i ^^^itary History of the Civil War in 

I America 

Pollard, Edward A. - - - - The Lost Cause 

Randolph, Innes ----- A Good Old Rebel 

Rhodes, James Ford - - - - History of the United States 

Ropes, John C. ----- Story of the Civil War 

Stephens, Alexander H. - - - The War Between the States 

Stiles, Robert ------ Four Years With Mars' Robert 

Swinton, William The Army of the Potomac 

White, Henry A. Robert E. Lee 

Whitney, Henry C. - - - - Life of Lincoln 

Adjutant-Generals and other official reports, 1861-1865. 

Civil War portions of Harper's Encyclopedia 

Personal Memoirs of Generals Grant, Early, Mosby, Sheridan, Sherman, et al 

Official Reports of Generals Grant, McClellan, et al 

United States Official Compilation of the Union and Confederate Armies, with 
Maps 



THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 



CHAPTER I. 
The Causes of the War. 



Sectional Division of the Country on Slavery — Assertion North and 
South of the Right of Secession — Sectional Division on the Tariff— Slavery 
in the Constitution — The Missouri Compromise — The Clay Compromise of 
1850 — Repeal of the Missouri Compromise — Civil War in Kansas — Presi- 
dential Campaign of 1856 — The Dred Scott Decision — John Brown's Raid — 
The Presidential Election of 1860 — Secession of the Southern States — Efforts 
at Conciliation — The Fall of Fort Sumter — Lincoln's Call for Troops. 

The outbreak in 1861 of the "Civil War" in the United States of 
America was the natural and unavoidable culmination of that "Irrepressible 
Conflict" (as Seward called it) over the question of "State Sovereignty" or 
State Rights which had extended through a period of eighty-five years of 
the country's history. Slavery, being the principal and important incident 
in the conflict, as Jefferson Davis states, served to array the Free and Slave 
States constantly against each other, and the passionate discussions of the 
subject stirred up acrimonious sectional strife, prejudices and passion among 
the opposing political factions. The Abolitionist of the Northern States, the 
South maintained, did wrong in making the disposition of slavery a national 
issue. Southern statesmen contended that the holding of negroes as slaves 
was purely a State affair, one of the many rights which the States reserved 
to themselves at the time of the forming of the Union, and that the many 
acts of Congress relating to the subject of slavery constituted a usurpation 
of powers never delegated to the Federation, which finally forced the slave 
States into secession. 

The contention as to State Rights was held not only by the Southern 
States, but was also advocated in the North. As early as 1814 at a conven- 
tion held at Hartford, Connecticut, in opposition to Federal acts passed in 
the prosecution of the Second War with Great Britain, the right of secession 
was stoutly maintained, and the Legislature of Massachusetts passed a reso- 
tion on more than one occasion to the same effect. But there was a large 
number of patriotic people both in the North and South who loved the 
nation for which their forefathers had died, and who, while they might admit 
the right of secession, realized thoroughly that dissolution of the Union 
could result only in calamity. "Union now and forever" was the motto of 
this class. 

Besides the slavery question that of the tariff served greatly to estrange 
the Free and Slave States. The South insisted time after time that Congress 
had no power to tax for purposes beyond revenue for the support of the 
government, and, therefore, that establishing a protective tariff was another 
usurpation of power not delegated to it since such a tariff, while enriching 
the North impoverished the South, operating as a heavy burden in making 
that purely agricultural section pay increased prices for articles manufactured 
at the North. The controversies resulting from the slavery and tariff enact- 
ments by Congress, involved all the passion and bitterness of which human 
nature is capable. 



10 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 

Indeed, the germ of discord between the' combatants on the question 
of slavery had its birth in the very cradle of the Republic. Under the 
Colonial rule, slavery existed in nearly every one of the original thirteen 
States, having been introduced in Virginia in 1620, whence it rapidly spread 
to the other colonies. Even as early as 1699 a controversy arose between 
the colonies and the English mother government over the African slave 
trade, showing that at that period the recognition of the inherent evils of 
slavery to the body politic prevailed among people both of the North and 
South. Later on the system at the North died a natural death, due perhaps 
partly to climatic causes, but mainly to the fact that paying wages to white 
labor was cheaper there than housing, clothing and feeding negro slaves, 
and produced greater economic results. On the other hand, in the South, 
with its semi-tropical climate, the raising of cotton, its principal agricultural 
staple, made negro labor seemingly indispensable. By most of the 
Southerners the institution so long established among them was considered 
one of the many blots upon society inherited from the past which would 
pass away in developing civilization. Still, they vehemently repudiated the 
contention of the Northern Abolitionists that slavery was ungodly. So each 
party went into the contention with the conscientious conviction that its 
side was right. At the very organization of the preliminaries to the Revolu- 
tionary War, efforts, even among the leaders of thought in the South, were 
made to bring about emancipation of the slaves, but the institution was so 
strongly entrenched in the social and political and economic system of the 
South, where it had existed over two hundred years, that the majority of the 
slave owners in the cotton-raising region combatted by every means in their 
power, efforts for the immediate annulment of the inhuman institution. 

Just before the Revolutionary War England had banished slavery from 
its domain through a decision of Chief Justice Mansfield in the case of James 
Somersett. Somersett was a negro slave who had been brought by his master 
to England from Virginia, Mansfield decided that as soon as a slave set 
his foot on British soil he became free. 

Thomas Jefferson, in his original draft of the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, inserted a clause strongly condemning the slave trade (importation 
of slaves), but he tells us that this clause "was omitted in compliance to 
South Carolina and Georgia, who had never attempted to restrict the 
. importation of slaves and wished to continue it, as well as in deference to 
the sensitiveness of Northern people, who, though having a few slaves them- 
selves, had been pretty considerable carriers to others." Later on all the 
States enacted laws against the importing of negro slaves, Virginia being 
the first in the Union to do so. Again, Jefferson, as chairman of a select 
committee to consider a plan of government, reported to the Ninth Con- 
gressional Congress an ordinance in which was stipulated that after 1800 
A. D. "there shall be neither slavery, nor involuntary servitude in any of 
said States," meaning all future new and embryo States. A motion to 
maintain this anti-slavery clause failed by just one vote, only six out of 
thirteen States being in its favor. Thus was early lost the opportunity of 
disposing forever of the vexed question of .slave trading and its extension 
which brought about the War of 1861. 

Those were trying days at the Convention which framed the Constitution, 
since our forefathers were forced to exert all patience, diplomacy and 



THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL, WAR 11 

State craft in dealing with the conflicting interests and discordant elements 
among the various factions, in their endeavor to bring about harmony in 
the Confederacy of the Thirteen States. 

Among the many questions which divided the delegates, none created 
such agitation as that of the disposition of slavery. And the framers in 
their anxious efforts to cement the Union were themselves guilty of subterfuge 
and ambiguity in using the terms in the Constitution of "persons," "service," 
"labor," when they really meant slaves and slavery. Mr. Madison, in 
explanation of this said, "they did it because they did not choose to admit 
the right of property in man." Yet, in fixing the ba.sis of representation in 
Congress, while all the free white voters counted in both North and South, 
in the South there was allowed to be included with the whites "three-fifths 
of all other persons," meaning, of course, the slaves, thereby practically 
recognizing slavery, and giving the slave-holding section of the country 
undemocratic predominance in its national legislature. And thus was 
inaugurated the "Irrepressible Conflict," the question of where slavery should 
and should not exist, which conflict was waged with increasing ferocity at 
each occasion of carving new States out of the Territories. 

For some years the struggle was abated in an effort to maintain balance 
of power between the "Slave" and "Free" States, by creating as nearly 
simultaneously as possible, a Free and Slave State out of the Territories. 
Thus the Free State of Vermont and the Slave State of Kentucky were 
admitted in 1791-2, followed by the Slave State of Tennessee in 1796 and 
Free Ohio in 1800; Louisiana was admitted in 1812, Indiana in 1816, Missis- 
sippi in 1817, and Illinois in 1818, Alabama in 1819, and Maine in 1820. 
But when it was proposed at the time of Maine's admission to make 
Missouri a Slave State, the Indignation of the North took on such furious 
dimensions that the famous "Missouri Compromise" was agreed upon to 
calm the troubled political waters, and Missouri was admitted under it in 1821. 

The enactment of this law limited for all future time slavery to the 
region south of the line of the southern boundary of Missouri, and its west- 
ward prolongation, 36° 30' north latitude, sometimes erroneously called the 
Mason and Dixon Line (which related only to the Maryland-Pennsylvania 
border). 

While the sentiment against slavery grew stronger year by year at the 
North, there also developed in the South an equally strong advocacy of slavery 
and its extension. There then existed practically three political parties: 
1st, The ultra pro-slavery, whose aim was to perpetuate the system. 2nd, 
The anti-slave party, whose object was not only to prevent its extension, but 
to destroy it. Both of these factions were determined upon their aims with- 
out any regard to the integrity of the Union, and both were essentially 
disunionists, the "State Rights" theory of the former party holding that the 
Union was merely a convenient league of sovereign States any one of which 
could withdraw from it when it deemed its rights were invaded by Federal 
action, and the slogan of the "Anti's" being that "the Constitution is a 
covenant with hell." 3rd, The Unionists, a party to which adhered the best 
of the population both in the North and South. It had for its foundation 
patriotism; the worship of the Fathers of the Revolution, and an honest and 
all-abiding conviction that in the Constitution there were ample means of 
ultimately setting all disagreements. 



12 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 

In 1836 the Slave State of Arkansas was admitted, followed by Free 
Michigan in 1837. Next came Florida and Texas in 1845, with Iowa and 
Wisconsin in 1848. At each occurrence of these admissions of Slave States 
the agitation took on serious proportions at the North and when finally in 
1850 California sought admission, the heat of the controversy arose to such 
heights that the very existence of the Union was then threatened. Cali- 
fornia lying largely south of 36° 30', it was contended by the pro-slavery 
party, that under the "Missouri Compromise" it should be a Slave State, but 
the overwhelming majority of the residents there including emigrants from 
Slave States, being free soil men, it finally became a Free State, under the 
so-called "Clay Compromise" of 1850, presented by Senator Henry Clay 
of Kentucky. The question as to Free or Slave States was not the only bone 
of contention. The return to Free States of fugitive slaves was the 
cause of constant acrimony between the two sections, the press, the 
rostrum and even the pulpit of the North and South indulging in the vilest 
opprobium in their denunciation of each other. The Constitution required 
all fugitive slaves to be returned to their masters, but the law was defied 
by the strongly anti-slave States, and the abolitionists not only refused to 
return the fugitives, but actually used every means to induce the negroes 
to run away. The Anti-Slavery faction determined upon annulling all these 
fugitive slave laws. And at a mass meeting at Chicago it was declared 
"the duty of all good citizens to defy death, the dungeon and the grave in 
resisting the fugitive slave laws." As a reply to this agitation the pro- 
slavery party set out to repeal the "Missouri Compromise." "The funda- 
mental trouble with the 'Clay Compromise,' " says George Cary Bggleston, 
the Southern historian, "was that, while the statesmen fondly thought to 
settle the matter by compromise, they did not grasp the true situation with 
which they were called upon to deal. They did not appreciate that there 
was indeed an 'Irrepressible Conflict' between the two systems, a conflict 
which no compromise could end, no arrangement modify, no agreement 
could by any possibility adjust." 

When Kansas-Nebraska applied for admission to the Union, Stephen A. 
Douglas, Senator from Illinois, proposed that the question of whether it 
should come in as Slave or Free be left to a vote of its inhabitants, a 
practical repeal of the Missouri Compromise, for which he was hailed by 
his own State as a "traitor," and a "violator of God's laws." Douglas, when 
returning home from Washington in 18 53, said "I traveled by the light of 
my own effigies." That these anti-slavery agitators were in the minority 
of Illinois voters, however, was evinced by the fact that Douglas was returned 
to the Senate. This instance is quoted to show that in spite of the tempest 
and bitterness of the radical agitation on either side, the Unionists really 
held the balance of power among the voters. But while the conservative 
voters were quiescent between elections, the opposing agitators were con- 
stantly at work devising means to destroy each other even if it brought 
about the rupture of the Republic. 

The passing of the Kansas and Nebraska bill in 1854 which repealed 
the "Missouri Compromise Law," and left to those States to be carved out 
of the Territories in the future, the right of the settlers to determine among 
themselves as to whether a State should be Free or Slave, was dubbed 
"Douglas's Squatter Sovereignty" act, and, as it extendecl "State Rights" to 



THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 13 

the Territories, it led to the formation in 1854 at the north of the Republican 
party from the "Free Soil" party. 

Civil War even broke out in Kansas between the "Slave" and "Free" 
settlers. Thither were rushed from the Southern States, slave-owning 
settlers who were called "border ruffians," while from the North were 
hurried hordes of paid emigrants called "Free State Men" who were nick- 
named by the "border ruffians" "Jayhawkers." These "Free State Men" 
were supplied with arms and means largely by the abolitionists of Massa- 
chusetts and falling under the command of a violent, over-zealous character 
named John Brown, they waged war against the "border ruffians," who 
were re-enforced from the South by organized troops. Acts of murder 
and rapine were committed, neither side showing, in their frenzy, regard 
either for property rights or even the lives of women or children. It 
requires no stretch of the imagination to discern that such lawlessness 
should, as it did, increase the acrimony between the sections, adding oil 
to the fire of discord. 

In the Presidential campaign of 1856 the question of popular sovereignty 
was the chief issue. The American, or "Know-Nothing" convention, which 
met first, declared for this principle, nominating for President ex-President 
Millard Fillmore, of New York, who was noted for his deprecation of 
sectionalism, and for Vice-President Andrew Jackson Donelson, of Tennessee." 
The same principle was upheld by the Democratic Convention, which nomi- 
nated for President James Buchanan, of Pennsylvania, and for Vice-President 
John C. Breckinridge, of Kentucky. The Republican Convention repudiated 
the principle and maintained as constitutional the right to exclude slavery 
from the Territories. It nominated for President John C. Fremont, of 
California, (a native of South Carolina), and for Vice-President William L.. 
Dayton, of New Jersey. In the ensuing election the Democratic candidates 
received 174 electoral, and 1,838,169 popular votes; the Republican candidates 
114 electoral, and 1,341,264 popular votes, and the American candidates 8 
electoral votes (all from Maryland). 

In his inaugural address, President Buchanan, undoubtedly with fore- 
knowledge of the decision, referred to the question of Popular Sovereignty, 
as shortly to be settled in a case pending in the United States Supreme 
Court. This was the Dred Scott case. 

Dred Scott, a negro, was, previously to 1834, held as a slave in Missouri 
by Dr. Emerson, a surgeon in the United States Army. In that year the 
doctor was transferred to the military post at Rock Island, in the Free 
State of Illinois, taking Scott with him. Here Major Taliaferro held as a 
slave, in 1835, a negress named Harriet. In that year the major was 
transferred to Fort Snelling in the Free Territory of Minnesota, taking 
Harriet with him. Dr. Emerson was transferred to the same post in 1836, 
taking Scott along with him, and there in the same year he bought Harriet, 
and permitted Scott to marry her. Two children were born to the Scotts 
north of the line lixed by the Missouri Compromise as the northern limit of 
slavery in Territories. Dr. Emerson then returned to St. Louis with Dred, 
Harriet and one of the children, Eliza, and, after holding them as slaves 
a few years, sold them to John F. A. Sanford, of New York City. Dred, 
inspired by anti-slavery men, brought suit in the Missouri State Court for 
the freedom of him.self and family, on the above state of facts, and obtained 



14 THE CAMPAIGNS OP THE CIVIL WAR 

a judgment in his favor. This was reversed by the Supreme Court of the 
State, and the case was carried to the United States Supreme Court, coming 
to trial in May, 1854. Decision was postponed until after the Presidential 
election of 1856 for obvious political reasons. Had it been rendered before 
this, opines Horace Greeley in his "The American Conflict," so great would 
have been public indignation in the North, that the Republican candidates 
would probably have been elected. 

On March 11, 1856, Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, of Maryland, publicly 
pronounced the decision, concurred in by all the Justices but John McLean, 
of Ohio, and Benjamin R. Curtis, of Massachusetts, which continued the 
Scotts in slavery. In doing this, it nullified the Missouri Compromise restric- 
tion of slavery as unconstitutional, and declared as such any restriction of 
slavery in any Territory. The right to sue for freedoin in any Federal Court 
was denied to any person held as a slave "whose ancestors were imported 
to this country and sold as slaves," on the ground that he and his ancestors 
were not included in the term "citizens," for whom the rights and immunities 
of the Constitution were provided, the decision declaring that at the time of 
the adoption of that instrument negro slaves and negro freedmen were 
considered as a subordinate and inferior class of beings, who * * * had 
no rights or privileges but such as those who held the power and the 
Government chose to grant them. Indeed, the Chief Justice made a very 
strong statement that implied that there were no moral as well as legal 
limitations to this denial of rights to negroes, saying that our forefathers 
held that negroes were so inferior that "they had no rights which the white 
man was bound to respect." 

This statement aroused the anti-slavery sentiment to the highest pitch 
of indignation, which was probably best expressed by Abraham Lincoln in 
a speech at Springfield, Illinois, on June 2 6, 1857, which attacked "the 
sacredness of judicial decisions" when these were based on erroneous state- 
ments and invaded natural rights and the moral law. He flatly denied 
that the makers of the Constitution regarded the negro as the Chief Justice 
stated they did, and he showed, with a wealth of proof, that the chief among 
them held opinions exactly to the contrary. 

Nevertheless the Republicans did not yet carry their opposition to 
slavery to the point of interfering with it in the States where it was 
admittedly protected by the Constitution. This rem.ained for the Abolitionists 
to do, and that by an overt act, with which, however, it must be confessed 
that the more extreme anti-slavery Republicans were privately in sympathy. 
John Brown, who had been the Abolition leader in the civil war in Kansas, 
either on his own initiative, as he claimed; or inspired by anti-Slavery 
radicals as the Southerners asserted, in view of the fact that he received 
financial aid from other persons, notably in Massachusetts, taking with him 
a band of devoted followers, seized the Federal Armory at Harper's Ferry, 
Virginia, on October 17, 1859, with the purpose of arming the slaves of that 
State in order to enable them forcibly to attain their freedom. The Virginia 
militia captured the armory against a stubborn resistance by Brown and his 
men, 23 in number, on the following morning. The Abolitionists, including 
Brown, who were not killed were tried and hanged. On the day of Brown's 
execution funeral bells were tolled and divine services held in hundreds of 
Northern towns. 



THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 15 

This act aroused the greatest indignation throughout the South. Section 
was now definitely arrayed against section, and it was patent that the coming 
Presidential contest was to be the bitterest ever waged in the history of the 
country. Prophesies were made North and South that it would lead to the 
division of the nation into two governments. The Abolitionists, who had 
heretofore stood aloof from the Republicans, thus dividing the anti-slavery 
energy, began to act politically with the larger and more effective party, 
which now held a bare majority in the House of Representatives. The 
Democrats were still divided into the extreme pro-slavery faction which 
demanded the extension of slavery by constitutional right into all the Terri- 
tories, and the Popular Sovereignty faction which still maintained the 
Douglas contention. 

Nevertheless, among the masses of the people of the North and South, 
there prevailed a strong patriotic Union sentiment; their only concern being 
for the preservation of the Republic, and in this they were encouraged and 
supported by the press, the rostrum and the pulpit, the latter taking a very 
. active and influential part in the controversy. Still a large number believing 
with Lincoln that "to endure permanently half Slave and have Free had been 
found futile." While the extremists in both sections were plainly in the 
minority, yet there was not sufficient vigorous organization or unity among 
the Union men to hold the fanatical Pro-slavery and Abolition leaders within 
reasonable check. Then, again, the secessionists of the South reasoned that 
in the success of the Republicans lay their hope of forcing secession on the 
Unionists in the Southern States. At the Democratic convention held at 
Charleston, South Carolina, April 23, 1860, it was expected that Senator 
Douglas would be nominated for President. He certainly was the most 
logical candidate; and it has been contended by a number of political 
historians that had he been nominated the Democratic party would have 
carried the election and thus the secession of the South would have been 
averted, at least for another four years. Still, it is plain to see that it could 
not have terminated the "Irrepressible Conflict." Douglas's nomination was 
prevented, however, by the pro-slavery delegates, and after wrangling several 
days, the convention adjourned to meet at Baltimore, Maryland, in June. 
The Constitutional Union party, composed largely of the supporters of Fill- 
more in 1856, held its convention at Baltimore in May and nominated John 
Bell, of Tennessee, for President, and Edward Everett, of Massachusetts, for 
Vice-President, on a platform whose motto rang, "The Union, the Constitution 
and the enforcement of the laws." The Republicans nominated Abraham 
Lincoln, of Illinois, as President, and Hannibal Hamlin, of Maine, as Vice- 
President, at Chicago on May 16, after considerable exciting debate. 

When the Democrats met the second time the same bitterness on the part 
of the Pro-slavery men created endless disturbance and wrangling, and 
these finally withdrew in disgust, and reformed and nominated John C. 
Breckinridge, of Kentucky, and Joseph Lane, of Oregon, as their standard 
bearers. The remaining delegates named Stephen A. Douglas and Herschel 
V. Johnson, of Georgia, and thus the party which held the votes of the 
country during so many administrations was irreconcilably split. The 
Presidential canvass during the memorable summer of 1860 goes down into 
American history as the bitterest that has ever occurred. The opposing 
parties hurled at each other from rostrum and even from the pulpit the 



16 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 

vilest epithets of opprobrium, full of that rancor and malignity which is 
characteristic of antagonism between members of one family. In the end 
that Election poll showed Breckinridge with 72 electors, Bell 39, Douglas 12, 
and Lincoln 180. Not one of the latter was from the South, and Lincoln 
failed to carry the popular vote by nearly a million and with but a narrow 
majority of 186,964 in the Free States. Although Lincoln represented the 
minority of the voters of the nation, and but one section of the country, 
still his election was looked upon as expressing the desire of the North for 
the abolishment of slavery. 

It must be borne in mind, that at this date our Southern States was the 
only region of the civilized nations, west of Russia where human slavery 
legally existed. This fact made the very name of the United States a 
reproach among those nations. 

At the beginning of Lincoln's administration, however, Lincoln was not 
anxious to take up the consideration of the slavery question. He clearly saw 
that to preserve the Union inviolate, which was his ardent desire, the discus- 
sion of the dread subject would only create friction and thwart his object. 
He was concerned especially in the conciliation of the Border States, the 
voters of which were more or less divided upon the question of secession. 

Even before Lincoln's inauguration the radicals of the South reached 
their object, which for so many years they had been contriving. On 
December 20, 1860, South Carolina adopted an ordinance of secession; this 
was shortly afterwards followed by similar acts of six other "Cotton States," 
But Virginia held aloof, which caused North Carolina and the Border States 
of Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri and Arkansas to hesitate, while Maryland 
and Delaware stood firmly by the Flag. In judging the acts of the secession 
of the Southern States it must not be forgotten that in the North the right 
of a State to secede was maintained by many. 

President Buchanan, in his desire to pass the few last months of his 
administration in peace, was disinclined to take any action in regard to main- 
taining Federal rights in the seceded territory which would precipitate 
civil war. 

On December 15, 1860, General Winfield Scott, the commander af the 
30,000 troops which constituted the United States Army, and which were 
widely scattered on remote frontier posts, recommended that the Federal 
garrisons in the Southern States, particularly that at Charleston, S. C, should 
be strengthened. This Buchanan refused to comply with, claiming that 
such a move on the part of the government would be regarded by the 
people of these States as hostile. On December 11, 1860, he had issued to 
Major Robert Anderson, then in command of a small garrison in Fort 
Moultrie at Charleston Harbor, S. C, the order "You are aware of the great 
anxiety of the Secretary of War that a collision of the troops with the people 
of the State shall be avoided. * * * He has, therefore, carefully abstained 
from increasing the force at this point, or taking any measures which might 
add to the present excited state of public mind, or which would throw any 
doubt on the confidence he feels that South Carolina will not attempt by 
violence to obtain possession of the public works, or interfere with their 
occupancy. The smallness of your force will not permit you, perhaps, to 
occupy more than one of the three forts, but an attack or an attempt to 
take pos.session of either one of them, will be regarded as an act of 



THE CAMl'AIGNS OP' THE CIVIL M^AR 17 

hostility, and you may put your command into either of them which you 
may deem most proper to increase its power of resistance." Following 
these instructions, Anderson the night after Christmas removed his little 
handful of men under cover of darkness to Fort Sumter, a little old brick 
fortification named after Thomas Sumter, a South Carolina general in the 
Revolution. Secretary of War, John B. Floyd, of Virgina, requested the 
President to order Anderson back to Fort Moultrie. This was refused, 
whereupon Floyd resigned. On January 5, 1861, Buchanan sent the steamer 
"Star of the West," with 250 troops and supplies to "the starving garrison." 
When the steamer reached Charleston Harbor on January 9, a State battery 
on Morris Island opened fire upon her, when she quickly withdrew and 
returned to New York. 

The seven seceding States held a convention early in February at Mont- 
gomery, Alabama, and formed themselves into a republic named the 
"Confederate States of America," and elected Jefferson Davis, who had been a 
United States Senator from Mississippi, President, and Alexander H. Stephens, 
of Georgia, Vice-President. On July 20th the seat of government was re- 
moved to Richmond, Va., where it remained until the end of the war. In 
the same month Virginia also held a convention for the purpose of consider- 
ing the question of secession. This gathering was strongly "Pro-Union," 
and it voted down by a large majority the resolution of secession, and denied 
the contention of the sister Slave States that Lincoln's election justified them 
in seceding. But, as we shall see, she joined them in April. 

Numerous efforts were undertaken by the conservatives of both sections 
to prevent the threatening conflict, and save the Union. At its first session 
Congress took action towards conciliation. Its "rump" House of Representa- 
tives, (so called from the fact that all the Southern members had withdrawn), 
passed the following resolution, "that the existing discontent among the 
Southern people and the growing hostility to the Federal Government among 
them, are greatly to be regretted; and that whether such discontent and 
hostility are without just cause or not, any reasonable, proper and constitu- 
tional remedies and additional and more specific guarantee of their peculiar 
rights and interests as recognized by the Constitution necessary to preserve 
the peace of the country and the perpetuity of the Union, should be promptly 
and cheerfully granted." This offer of the olive branch was, however, voted 
down in the Senate. Thus finding that no concessions nor guarantees could 
be counted upon from the Republican administration, the leaders of the 
Pro-slavery party determined to act promptly within their asserted rights, 
and the first movement in this direction was when South Carolina demanded, 
(perhaps it would be more proper to say requested, for the demand was made 
in most courteous language and manner), the surrender of Fort Sumter in 
Charleston Harbor. This they did under the assumed legal right that, having 
withdrawn from the Union, they held that United States troops there were 
invaders and should be withdrawn from the State. 

Upon the refusal of Major Anderson to retire from the post without 
orders from his superiors, preparations were immediately begun, with great 
pomp and display, for the bombardment of the untenable fortress manned 
by some two dozen troops. These warlike movements in South Carolina, 
gave excuse for similar military preparations in the Northern States; for 
instance, a fleet was being fitted out at the very time for the succor of Major 



18 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 

Anderson. The fighting spirit in both sections was now taking on such 
force that it was plain to see it would soon reach such a magnitude that the 
conservative leaders of both the North and South would be utterly powerless 
to stem its sway. That dreaded moment came at 4:20 A. M. April 12, 1861, 
when General Pierre G. T. Beauregard, of Louisiana, caused the first shot to 
be fired on Fort Sumter. This reverberated throughout the entire country 
electrifying both the people of the North and South. 'Tis true the little 
heroic band of defenders, who were compelled to surrender because of the 
firing of their barracks, were treated in the same courteous manner which 
had characterized all the negotiations, being permitted to salute the lowering 
of the fiag; to march out of the fort with all military honors, and to depart 
peacefully for the North. 

The next day Lincoln issued his call upon the States for 75,000 soldiers 
to protect public property and maintain peace between the States. In this 
call Virginia was commanded to send in her quota, as she had not seceded. 
That terrible and trying moment for Virginia, the birthplace of so many 
founders and Presidents of the American Republic, had arrived, when she 
must promptly decide between "Secession" or "Coercion" and as Eggleston 
in his history of the "Confederate War" truly states, "After many weeks of 
resolute resistance to what the Virginians regarded as a policy of quixotic 
folly and certain destruction, the Virginia Convention on the 17th of April, 
1861, adopted an ordinance of secession. From that hour war was on in 
earnest as both sides quite clearly understood." The famous Admiral David 
G. Farragut, a- native of Tennessee, tersely declared "Virginia had been 
dragooned out of the Union." She was quickly followed by her sister 
"Border States." Still the peace-loving men of both sections made strenuous 
effort to thwart the coming conflagration. As late as July 19, even Virginia 
proposed a convention at Washington of delegates from all the different 
parties to meet and devise a plan to avert the approaching calamity. But 
all these noble efforts of the loyal and true Unionists in the South were 
rudely bayed down by the dogs of war on both sides. 

The rest of the glorious, but sad, lamentable story is of the horrors of 
war — a war never before equalled in heroism, self-sacrifice, endurance, or 
butchery. It was a combat of brother against brother. A happy people 
were plunged into the bloody clash by rabid fanatics on either side, and a 
struggle ensued in which abounded all those acts of rage, fury, anger, even 
deep vengeance which are characteristic of a feud between members of one 
family. 



THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 19 

CHAPTER 11. 

General Survey of the War. 

statistics of Forces and Casualties — Tlie Cost of tlie War — The War 
Zone — Preparations for War. 

We have now to recount the military and naval operations, the cam- 
paigns with their battles from 1861 to the final collapse of the "Lost Cause" 
in 1865. The contest endured over a longer period than any previous 
modern war, and involved some three millions of combatants, a greater 
force than the combined standing armies in times of peace of England, 
France, Germany, Austria, Italy and Spain. The territory over which these 
operations extended was greater in area than all Western Europe, and 
comprised a region, in great part, still in its primeval state, studded with 
vast swamps, wildernesses and high ranges of impassable mountains, with 
but meagre means of transportation between the widely separated fields of 
action, rendering necessary the rapid and incessant marching of foot-sore 
troops over unheard of distances. 

At the North the mobilizing of an immense army in a marvelously short 
period, the fitting out of an entire new navy of several hundred ships to 
guard 3,000 miles of coast, the building of numerous light-craft gunboats 
and transports, the construction of miles and miles of railroads with their 
numerous bridges for carrying the legions with their munitions of war far into 
the heart of an enemy's country, were achievements without parallel, especially 
in the South, where with almost no existing mechanical resources, in a 
purely agricultural country, almost entirely cut off from the rest of the 
world and unable to call for outside help, which the North could and did 
obtain, the same wonderful feats of engineering had to be accomplished, 
first by constructing foundries, factories, shipyards, etc., which the North 
already possessed, and then by building railroads, etc., for which mechanics 
had to be developed out of farmers, since the South, unlike the North, had 
few skilled workman at command. Surely these great achievements must 
have stimulated the imagination and extended the views of our captains of 
industry, discovering to them the vast potentiality which had been lying 
dormant in the American people. While the objects of these labors were 
direful and expensive, without doubt they greatly served to bring about 
after the war those wonderful industrial accomplishments and developments 
which have made the Yankee people — the united North and South — the 
most notable and progressive nation on the face of the earth. The great 
war also taught the old European nations what vast undreamed-of power 
dwelt in the peace-loving Americans, and negatived forever the oft repeated 
assertion that the United States Republic, however competent it was to solve 
the problems of peace, was not able successfully to conduct a great war. 

No such achievements were recorded of any other nation. No greater 
battles had ever been fought; no such marching and counter-mp-rohing 
afoot and fighting backwards and forwards over vast distances and unbroken 
country by both sides in the fray had been done; no greater acts of heroism 
accomplished. Then why should not the Blue and the Gray soldiers boast, 



20 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 



and why not all citizens of our grand Republic be proud and ever ready to 
stand, as they did during- the Spanish War, by "Old Glory," the "Star 
Spangled Banner" of our reunited country? 

From the report of the United States Adjutant-General's office made in 
1885, and Colonel Thomas S. L,ivermore's Compilation in the Historical 
Society of Massachusetts, we are able to present the following reliable 
statistics: 

The number of enlistments at the North in the Army and Navy, including 
re-enlistments, was 2,778,304. The total deaths were 360,000. This does 
not include, however, the vast number discharged for disabilities who died 
at their homes. Colonel Dodge in his "Bird's-eye View of the Civil War," 
says, "It is safe to say that one-half million men were lost to the North, 
and close upon the same number to the South." He further states that, by 
reducing the various terms of service to a basis of three years, the North 
furnished 1,700,000 three-year men and the South 900,000; and that, while 
the North had double the number of the South, still allowing for the vast 
numbers of the Northern Armies required for garrisoning captured places, 
for bringing supplies along great distances as the armies advanced south- 
ward, and for protecting and guarding these routes against attack; also 
allowing for the absentees away on account of sickness and other causes, 
it is fair to estimate that on the firing lines the proportion stood three for 
the North to two for the South. Colonel Dodge estimates that "in the 
Northern armies, two-thirds of all the men were American born; in the 
South, all but a small percentage were so, and among the foreign soldiers, 
the greater part were naturalized citizens." Again, on page 121, he presents 
a comprehensive table showing the percentage of the killed and wounded 
in the famous European battles since 1745, together with the like losses 
during our Civil War. We quote for the purpose of comparison the follow- 
ing few cases in which the losses were the heaviest: 
Up to Waterloo, the French, in nine battles (Napoleon's) lost in 

killed and wounded of the number engaged 22.38% 

Up to Waterloo, the Prussians, in eight battles (mostly Frederick's), 

lost 18.42% 

During our Civil War, the Union forces lost in fourteen pitched 

battles 14.48% 

The Confederates in twelve engagements 18. % 

Of very severe losses in small bodies at Mais La Tour, one German 

regiment lost 49.1% 

In our Civil War, one Union regiment lost 82. % 

At Gettysburg, one Confederate regiment lost 90. % 

The unparalled cost in treasure of the war is as follows: 

For Federal expenditures 3,400 million dollars 

For the different States 1,350 million dollars 

For the different cities 100 million dollars 

Total for the North 4,850 million dollars 

It is estimated that the cost to the South was 3,500 million dollars 

The aggregate then of both 8.350 million dollars 

During the last year of the war, the Federal daily expenditures for the 
Army and Navy alone were over three million dollars. 



THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 21 



The South, in 1861, had three million slaves, and had the nation, as was 
often proposed, paid their owners at the high rate of $2,000.00 each, the cost 
of peaceful emancipation of slavery would have amounted to but six thousand 
million dollars, and resulted in a saving of two thousand million dollars in 
money, not to speak of nearly one million of men who perished. 

Besides the above appalling losses to the Union and Confederate govern- 
ments, there have to be considered the misery, pain, suffering and losses of 
treasure and property entailed among the thousands and thousands of families 
in both sections, but especially so in the South. 

Truly, if as Sherman said, "War is Hell," the American Civil War, follow- 
ing prosperity unparalled in the annals of peace, was infernal to the blackest 
degree. 

Before we begin the recital of the campaigns of the war it will be well 
to take a general view of the geographical line of conflict between the armies, 
since a clear knowledge of the nature of "terrain" is all important in under- 
standing military affairs. 

Starting at the mouth of the beautiful and historically famous Potomac 
River that empties into the Chesapeake Bay, we follow its course to where 
the lovely and renowned Shenandoah (Indian for "Daughter of the Stars") 
River joins it in a gap of the Blue Ridge Mountains, and where guarding the 
passage stands the fortified United States Arsenal at Harper's Ferry; thence 
westerly along the line of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad on its route 
through the gaps in the Allegheny Mountains until Parkersburg on the Ohio 
River is reached; thence down that tortuous stream skirting along in succes- 
sion the southerly boundaries of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois to Carlo, where it 
empties into the Mississippi; thence up that mighty waterway to St. Louis, 
and thence finally west to the westerly boundary line of Missouri. This will 
in a general way mark out the northerly limit of the region in which occurred 
the battles of the Civil War, for during the four years of the fighting the 
armies of the Grays never crossed this line but on three occasions; first, 
when Lee made his sortie in 18 62, that brought about the furious battle of 
Antietam in Maryland, again when that gallant general made his second 
Northern raid in 18 63 which caused the bloody fight of Gettysburg, and last 
when Jubal A. Early made his unsuccessful raid against Washington in 
1864. 

It is true, however, that some cavalry of the Grays under John H. 
Morgan dashed over the Ohio River in 1862, but his entire force was 
captured. 

If now we draw a straight line from the west end of this northern 
boundary south through Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas to the 
Gulf of Mexico, we will have delineated fairly well the western boundary. 
All the territory lying between these two limits and the Gulf of Mexico and 
the Atlantic Coast constituted the entire War Zone. In a similar way the 
general topographical features must be considered, being necessary to a clear 
understanding of the various military operations, for mountain ranges, river 
and coast outlines have an important influence upon, and in a great measure 
determine the movements of armies. 

Starting at Harper's Ferry, we flnd the Allegheny Mountains, with their 
numerous parallel ranges and intervening valleys, run southwesterly almost 
parallel with the Atlantic Ocean, reaching well down into Alabama. Further- 



22 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL, \,AR 

more, they divide the so-called War Zone between the Mississippi and the 
coast into two sections of virtually equal widths. It was in the eastern 
section, on the soil of Virginia and West Virginia, that the encounters between 
the Union "Army of the Potomac" under McClellan and his successors, and 
the Confederate "Army of Virginia" under Lee, took place, while in the 
western section occurred the operations of the Western Armies under Ulysses 
S. Grant, William T. Sherman, William S. Rosecrans and others for the 
Blues, and Albert Sidney Johnston, Joseph E. Johnston, Braxton Bragg and 
others for the Grays. Besides these battlefields, the western part of Louisiana 
from New Orleans north, was the campaigning grounds of the "Armies of 
the Southwest." The military operations which took place west of the 
Mississippi other than those of the "Southwest Armies," were in Missouri 
and Arkansas in the so-called trans-Mississippi section. They were disjointed 
affairs following no prearranged military plan, and while the fighting was, 
in most cases, desperate and furious, with considerable sacrifice, and with 
gallant acts of bravery and skill exhibited by either combatants, they exerted 
no military influence on the final outcome of the real campaign. Politically, 
they were important, being for the most part, especially in 1861, brought 
about by the incessant nagging of the Governments and generals of either 
side by their respective "yellow journals," and the pernicious haranging of 
"fire-eating" political demagogues, a mischievous set who during the whole 
war did much to inflame the passions of the people and upset the plans of the 
great captains, and hamper the efforts of the true patriotic leaders of the 
North and the South. 

As has been already stated, the fact was patent at the outbreak of 
hostilities, that both North and South were so utterly unprepared for war, 
that time had to be gained in order to properly fit out their armies upon a 
war footing. No time was lost, however, for both combatants went 
strenuously to the gigantic tasks. 

With the South, the matter was a very difficult one, for being largely 
an agricultural country, they had but few establishments where armament 
and munitions of war could be manufactured — especially was this the case 
in the production of gunpowder, for which their means were very slender. 

In the entire Confederacy, at the outbreak of the war, there were but 
120,000 small arms. It was from foreign countries that supplies of nearly 
every description were looked for. But as the southern ports were more 
or less well guarded by the northern blockading fleet, that commerce was 
hazardous in the extreme. Their foreign supplies came mainly through 
Bermuda and Havana in English ships; also by way of Mexico, through 
Texas, all combining to make the costs very excessive. Again, the South 
suffered in another direction, her railroads being chiefly operated by white 
Northerners, who, in most cases, deserted their posts and returned North 
to swell the ranks of her foe. Considering all these obstacles, there is 
probably no instance in modern history of a people putting up such a 
vigorous fight as the Gray did for four years against an enemy several times 
greater in number, wealth and resources, and with the stores of all Europe 
to call upon. Is it any wonder they received the admiration, and to a 
great extent, the sympathy of the world? 

President Lincoln, in his first message to Congress, July 4, 1861, after 
outlining the policy of administration, in which he maintained that the 



THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 23 

"Preservation of the Republic" was the first and most important concern of 
the Government, insisted that the disposition of the "Slavery Question," the 
issue upon vt^hich his party came into power, should be set aside for the 
time being. For purposes of war, he requested Congress power to raise 
400,000 troops, and for an appropriation of 400 million dollars. Congress 
unanimously responded by authorizing 500,000 troops and 500 million dollars. 



24 THE CAMPAIGNS OP THE CIVIL WAR 

CHAPTER III. 

Contest for the Border States, 1861. 

Lincoln's and Davis's Call for Troops — Spies — Lincoln's Suspension of 
Habeas Corpus — The Blockade — Foreign Affairs — The Trent Affair — The 
Baltimore Mob — Confederate Seizure of Arsenals — Organization of Military 
Departments — Second Call for Troops — General McClellan — Contest for 
Missouri — Contest for West Virginia — General Lee — Battles Near Portress 
Monroe — Union Capture of Alexandria and Harper's Ferry — Battle of Bull 
Run — Minor Events of the Year — In the East, Ball's Bluff — In Missouri, 
Wilson's Creek — Military Emancipation, by Butler, Fremont and Hunter — 
Lexington, Mo. — Grant's Operations — Belmont — Events in Kentucky — 
Operations of Grant, Sherman, Buell, Thomas — Mill Springs. 

The call for 75,000 troops by Lincoln was responded to by intense 
patriotic alarcity on the part of the Northern States, many of which sent 
militia largely in excess of their quotas. For instance. New York sent 30,000 
instead of 13,000. However, the Slave States still in the Union refused to 
obey the call. Virginia's action in the matter has already been narrated. 
Governor Claiborne F. Jackson, of Missouri, sa,id: "Not one man will Missouri 
furnish to carry on such an unholy crusade." Governor Beriah Magoffin, 
of Kentucky, and Governor Isham G. Harris, of Tennessee, replied in similar 
terms. Governor Thomas H. Hicks, of Maryland, as we shall see later, at 
first opposed the call, but later, owing to Lincoln's diplomacy, issued it. 

The President made it his chief purpose to keep these Border States in 
the Union, and this influenced greatly the military strategy of the war. 
Indeed the struggle during the first year may be called essentially "The 
Contest for the Border States." 

Almost simultaneously with President Lincoln's call for 75,000 troops, 
came a similar requisition upon the Confederate States from President Davis, 
which was responded to with an enthusiasm excelling even the loyal eagerness 
of the Northern militia. 

The first military forces assembled by both sides, consisted of petted 
and ornate parading militia, entirely untrained in the art of war, ridiculously 
uniformed and inadequately equipped for the arduous duties of soldiers in 
the field. In many cases, North and South, they brought with them luxurious 
tents and equipage, even to the extent of body-servants. 

The military orders, movements and preparations by either side were 
fully well known to each other, it being impossible to proceed in these matters 
with that secrecy absolutely necessary in military operations against an 
antagonist. It must be remembered that communications between the two 
sections, by mail, by trade and by means of the press, had not yet been 
closed. 

Then, too, there were Southern spies in every Northern city, and even in 
the Government departments at Washington. In order to stop the leakage 
of Government plans and military movements through these, and also to 
prevent possible hostile acts of the State Legislature of Maryland and other 
Slave States in the Union, on April 25, the President authorized Winfield 



THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 25 

Scott, commanding- general of the army, to suspend the writ of haveas corpus, 
This evoked a great outcry of protest from State Rights Democrats, such 
as Chief Justice Taney, of Maryland; Senator James A. Bayard, of Delaware, 
and Representative Clement L. Vallandingham, of Ohio, who characterized 
the suspension as unconstitutional, since it applied to regions not in 
insurrection. 

The Democrats who supported the President in a vigorous prosecution 
of the war, including the suspension of habeas corpus, were known as 
"War Democrats." Chief of these was Stephen A. Douglas, who died, how- 
ever, on June 3, 1861. Some weeks before his death he made the most 
eloquent speech of his life, an address to the Illinois Legislature on the 
preservation of the Union. 

The next important step of the Administration after the call for troops 
was on April 19, 18 61, the declaration of a blockade of all Southern ports. 
Although this was justified by the Proclamation of Confederate President 
Davis on April 17, inaugurating privateering, it was held by many as a 
diplomatic mistake. At that time the Confederates were doing everything 
in their power to induce the European Governments to interfere by recogniz- 
ing the South as a Nation. The crowned heads of France, England and 
Germany, jealous of the rising of our democratic nation, were only too 
anxious to see the split in the great American Republic; and gladly ready to 
seize upon any pretext that would give them a valid excuse for intervention. 
Russia alone stood as a friend to the Union. The complications brought 
about by the Blockade Proclamation consisted in the fact that, while the 
Administration insisted that the Slave States could not secede, and were, 
therefore, still in the Union, a blockade of their ports, practically, recognized 
before the world, the seceded States as belligerents, or in other words, a 
nation engaged in war. For, by international law, while a nation may 
blockade the harbors of a foreign enemy, it may not blockade its own 
against the commerce of neutral nations. The European Governments were 
not slow in taking advantage of the opportunity, and they promptly granted 
the Confederacy "belligerent rights," which was, of course, of great benefit 
and of important assistance, enabling the Confederate Government to place 
loans and purchase munitions of war abroad. This unfriendly but legitimate 
act on the part of the European nations grated hard upon the hearts of the 
loyal Northerners. For months the North was in dread of a war with Great 
Britain, who could use Canada as a base on our northern border, and thus 
put the Blues between two fires. Indeed, there was a strong party in 
England in favor of British interference. But, through the influence of 
John Bright, a member of Parliament, who, backed by a strong public feeling, 
emotively strengthened by reading "Uncle Tom's Cabin," by Harriet Beecher 
Stowe, constantly insisted that England, which had fought against and 
actually destroyed slavery in Europe, could not attach herself to a nation 
fostering that cruel system. The friends of the South, however, maintained 
that slavery was not the issue in the American War, but that the contention 
was the right of States to secede from the Union, a position which seemed 
just to such statesman as William E. Gladstone, in view of the original 
secession of all the American States from Great Britain. Day after day, the 
news from the British Parliament was anxiously awaited in the North. This 
news came slowly, as there was then no cable connection with Europe, for 



26 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 

it must be remembered that the first Atlantio cable, laid in 1858, got out of 
order shortly after completion, and it was not until 18 66, a year after the 
close of the war, that international communication by electricity was 
permanently established. 

In the midst of these intensely absorbing and exciting foreign discussions, 
to make matters still more complicated, there occurred the famous Trent 
affair. Two ex-Federal Senators, Mason and Sidell, were commissioned by 
the Government to represent the South in Europe. They ran the blockade 
to Havana, and there took passage upon an English mail vessel, the Trent, 
bound for Europe. A short way out the Trent was overhauled by one of 
our coast warships, the San Jacinto, Captain Wilkes commander, and Mason 
and Sidell were forcibly taken off and carried to Fort Warren in Boston 
Harbor, where they were held as prisoners of war. This act greatly strained 
diplomatic affairs between the British Government and the Administration, 
and for days it seemed war was inevitable. The Federal Government, how- 
ever, by the advice of William H. Seward, Secretary of State, admitted its 
error, (thereby establishing our country's life-long contention for neutral 
rights) and allowed Mason and Sidell to go free. Finally, when Queen 
Victoria issued her proclamation of neutrality, May 13, 1861, the North at 
last got a breathing spell, although it was but a half-hearted act on England's 
part towards either belligerent. During June, France and Spain, acting in 
accord with England, also issued proclamations of neutrality. 

In the meantime, militia regiments from the different States were l)eing 
rushed to the defense of Washington, the capture of which was the first 
purpose of the Confederacy. Among the first to get under way was the 
Sixth Massachusetts; this, while passing through Baltimore, was assailed by 
a mob of fanatic Southern sympathizers, and in the skirmish that ensued a 
dozen soldiers and as many of the rioters were killed or wounded. In an 
effort at extenuation of these unlawful acts of the citizens of Maryland, the 
Governor of the State, Thomas H. Hicks, contended that the eastern troops 
were foreigners invading, without permission, their soil, and that his people 
were perfectly justified in their warlike acts of burning bridges, stopping 
mails, and attacking the invaders as being in line of duty to their State. 
President Lincoln sent a note to Governor Hicks saying that "He (Lincoln) 
cannot but remember that there has been a time in the history of our country 
when a general of the American Union, with forces designed for the defense 
of its capital, was not unwelcome anywhere in the State of Maryland." This 
was effective, as shown by a call for Maryland's quota of Federal troops 
issued by Governor Hicks two months later. 

On April 20, General Benjamin F. Butler, of Massachusetts, seized a 
ferryboat at Havre de Grace, Md., and sailed with his troops to Annapolis, 
where, being reinforced by the 7th New York Militia Regiment, he reached 
Washington on the 24th. A few days later some troops from Pennsylvania 
also reached the Capital. 

On April 18 the Confederates had seized Harper's Ferry, Va., a military 
post on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, at a gap in the Blue Ridge where 
the Shenandoah River joins the Potomac. They found, however, that all 
the shops and munitions of war had been destroyed by the small retreating 
garrison. This was a serious loss to the Union cause, for next to the arsenal 
at Springfield, Mass., Harper's Ferry had the most important plant for the 



THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL. WAR 27 



manufacture of arms, guns and other war munitions in the country, and, 
from its position, was a post of the highest strategic importance, its capture 
cutting off direct communication between Washington and the West. Simul- 
taneously another loss to the Blues occurred in the capture of the Navy 
Yard near Norfolk, Virginia. This was a good acquisition for the Grays, 
as the Buchanan Administration had for several years been placing there 
large stores of munitions. 

On April 27 the War Department organized the contemplated seat of war 
into the following departments: 1. — Washington and vicinity, under army 
officer. Colonel J. K. F. Mansfield. 2. — Annapolis and vicinity, under the 
militia, General Benjamin F. Butler. 3. — Pennsylvania, including the rest 
of Maryland, and Delaware and Pennsylvania, under the militia, General 
Robert Patterson. 

On May 3, the President issued a proclamation calling for 42,03 4 more 
militia from the several States, and an increase in the Regular Army of 
22,714 men, and in the Navy of 18,000. On the same day the Department of 
the Ohio, consisting of the States of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, was placed 
under the command of George B. McClellan, who had, on April 23, been 
appointed by Ohio as major-general of its volunteers. 

At that time McClellan was reputed to be the best military engineer in 
the country. He had led his class in mathematics at West Point, and served 
as a lieutenant of engineers in the Mexican War, and later was made 
instructor in practical engineering at West Point. 

In 1855 he was sent, with orders, to Europe to observe the tactics of the 
Crimean War. His report, published in 18 61 under the title of "The Armies 
of Europe," is admirable for its clearness, fullness and accuracy. From 1857 
to 1861 Captain McClellan was engaged in the railroad business, first as civil 
engineer, and later as president of important companies. 

General McClellan at once devoted himself to the work of organizing 
and training his raw troops, watchfully waiting for action by Kentucky across 
the Ohio from his depcrtment. This State, under the leadership of Governor 
Magoffin and Simon B. Buckner. commander of the militia, who were 
secessionists at heait, had adopted the policy of "armed neutrality." How- 
ever, the hero of Fort Sumter, Major Robert Anderson, a native of Kentucky, 
wa-! sent, on May ?, to Cincinnati to recruit Union volunteers from 
Kentucky and western Virginia, and by June 10 he had organized two 
Kentucky regim.ents. 

Missouri, to the west of McClellan's department, while preponderatingly 
Union in popular sympathy, through political division of the Union sentiment 
had a secessionist Governor and Legislature, who had called a State conven- 
tion to pass on the question of secession. This had condemned secession on 
February 28, adiourning in March. Governor Jackson thereupon established 
a camp for the State militia near St. Louis, under General D. M. Frost, 
nominally for training, but really to capture the State for the Confederacy, 
and to this end seize the Federal arsenal at St. Louis. It was called Camp 
Jackson. Another secessionist, Jefferson M. Thompson, began drilling 
another camp at St. Joseph, to take the arsenal at Leavenworth, Kansas. 
To oppose these purposes the Union men organized "Home Guards." 

The Federal Government, feeling that General William S. Harney, com- 
mander of the military department including Missouri, had been lax in 



28 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 



repressing sedition, summoned him to Washington. He was captured by 
Confederates at Harper's Ferry, and later released, in order not to provoke 
Missouri against the Confederate. In the meantime the Federal Govern- 
ment had seized the opportunity to place St. Louis under martial law under 
the direction of Captain Nathaniel Lyon, an ardent Unionist, who com- 
manded the arsenal. 

On May 8 the Confederate Government supplied the secessionist Camp 
Jackson with arms and ammunition from the captured Federal arsenal at 
Baton Rouge, La. On May 10, Captain Lyon captured the camp "with the 
goods," but paroled the prisoners. On May 11, Harney returned and assumed 
command. Lincoln, distrusting him, made Lyon a brigadier-general of 
volunteers, in order that he might be in a position to supersede Harn6y at 
once on wire from Washington. 

On the night of the capture of Camp Jackson, Governor Jackson 
hastily convened the State Legislature, which at his dictation made him a 
military dictator and appropriated $3,000,000 of school and other State 
funds for his purposes. Jackson appointed ex-Governor Sterling Price 
as major-general of "State Guards." Price made an arrangement with 
General Harney which secured the latter's agreement not to interfere with 
his plans, and then proceeded to organize secessionist troops under the guise 
of State militia. Lincoln learning of this superseded Harney by Lyon. 
Lyon demanded of Jackson that he revoke the military appropriation, and 
disband the "State Guards." In reply Jackson hurried with Price to Jeffer- 
son City, the State Capital, and proclaimed war, calling 50,000 militia into 
service. As Jackson and Price had burned the railroad bridges behind 
them in their flight to the capital, Lyon embarked troops on swift river 
steamboats and arrived at Jefferson City before resistance could be organized. 
Price and his militia fled. Lyon overtook him at Booneville, fifty miles up 
the river, and defeated him on June 17, dispersing his militia. Jackson, 
fleeing from place to place in the State kept up the pretense of a State 
government, which was recognized by Jefferson Davis. The State popular 
convention, adjourned in March, met on July 22, and organized a provisional 
State government under Hamilton R. Gamble, a conservative Unionist. 
Missouri remained under Union control throughout the war. 

In May General McClellan crossed the Ohio River and occupied Parkers- 
burg, Va., the terminus of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. Marching east 
along the railroad and meeting a Confederate force under General Porter- 
field, at Grafton, where the Wheeling branch from the northwest joins the 
main line, he drove the enemy south to Phillippi. Following up his attack 
he forced Porterfield south to Huttonsville, a place lying near the western 
slope of the Allegheny Range and just south of Laurel Hill, where other 
Confederate troops under Governor Wise, of Virginia, were stationed. 

The action of secession by the State Government at Richmond, Virginia, 
was strongly disapproved of by some forty counties in the west and north- 
west portions of the State, as in these sections there were few slave owners. 
A convention of Unionists of these counties assembled at Wheeling, Virginia, 
and on June 19 voted to withdraw from the old State and forrn, a new one 
to be called West Virginia, to which end they established a provisional 
government. This action was afterwards ratified by Congress, and on April 
20, 1863, a new State was added to the Union — truly an unconstitutional aot,. 



THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 29 

but justified as a war measure, which is another way of saying that an 
enemy has no rights which his antagonist is bound to respect. 

On July 4 McClellan was at Grafton, West Virginia, with a force of about 
20,000, opposed to a much smaller Confederate force under Garnett and John 
Pegram, whose object was to manoeuvre so as to prevent any of McClellan's 
forces getting through the gaps in the Allegheny Range into the Shenandoah 
Valley, which would help the Union troops there under Patterson. So, on 
July 11, William S. Rosencrans, one of McClellan's generals, attacked Pegram 
at Rich Mountain, and put him to flight towards Bevery. McClellan with 
the main army was there, however, and compelled Pegram to retreat north- 
ward. Pegram being cut off, was obliged to surrender his poor little half- 
starved force of 600, which was hailed as a tremendous victory for McClellan. 
A portion of McClellan's command under General Morris, then caught up 
with General Garrett at Garrick Ford, where a struggle took place, in which 
the Confederate General was killed. During these engagements, Governor 
Wise, with his Confederate force, was at Scarytown on the Kanawha River, 
near the southwestern part of the State, and, learning of the disasters that 
had befallen Pegram and Garrett, fell back eastwardly to Lewisburg, which 
lies near the westerly slope of the AUeghenies and a short distance south of 
Grafton. In doing so. Wise burned all the bridges behind him, in order to 
delay the pursuit of the Blues. At Lewisburg, joining with other forces 
under John B. Floyd, Wise turned suddenly upon an Ohio regiment at Cross 
Lanes, sending it in panic to the rear. He then endeavored to get south 
and to the rear of some forces under General Jacob Dolson Cox, but Rose- 
crans, unexpectedly coming from the north, attacked Floyd at Carnifex 
Ferry, forcing him to retire during the night to Big Sewel Mountain. Tliese 
results, not pleasing the Davis Administration at Richmond, Wise was super- 
seded by General Robert E. Lee, who brought with him large reinforcements 
into the district. 

Speaking of this episode — the coming of Lee into play — Draper, in his 
"History of the Civil War" says, "Previous to this junction being effected, 
Lee had attempted unsuccessfully to dislodge Rosecrans' forces under General 
Reynolds from Cheat Mountain. The attack miscarried through the failure 
of an unexpected combination. This want of success brought upon Lee the 
disapprobation of the Confederate Government." 

It was said in Richmond that "He might have achieved a brilliant success, 
opening the northwestern country, and enabling Floyd and Wise in driving 
Cox with ease out of the Kanawha Valley." Regrets, however, are unavailing 
now. General Lee's plan of finished drawings of battle, which was sent to 
the War Department at Richmond, was said to have been one of the best 
laid plans that ever illustrated the rules of strategy, or ever went awry on 
account of actual failure in its execution. Lee's great achievement afterwards 
in all his campaigns with the army or northern Virginia during the years 
1862-3-4-5, bore out the high opinion of his friends. 

Lee was a graduate of West Point, and a former favorite of General 
Scott, who had secured from the new Administration Lee's appointment on 
March 16 as Colonel of the First Cavalry. On April 18 Lincoln unofficially 
offered Lee, then in Washington, the command of the Union Army, 
wrote in 18 68 to Reverdy Johnson: "I declined the offer * * * sta in 



as 



candidly and courteously as I could that, although opposed to secession 



THE CAMPAIGNS OP THE CIVIL WAR 



and deprecating- war, I could take no part in the invasion of the Southern 
States." Lee at once went to Richmond, and on the 20th of April wrote to 
General Scott resigning his commission in the United States Army. On 
April 22 he accepted from the Governor and Convention of Virginia the chief 
command of the State troops. 

Lee had a force of 20,000 ready to give battle in Rosecrans' front, but 
the latter retired suddenly at night. Three or four unimportant events 
occurred among these forces in northern West Virginia until the winter set 
in. When following a reorganization, in commanders by the War Depart- 
ment, Lee was sent to South Carolina, Wise to Richmond and Floyd to the 
army in Tennessee under Albert S. Johnston. A final attempt on the part 
of the Confederates, under General Stonewall Jackson, to save West Virginia 
to the cause was made January 1, 1862. resulting in the capture of Romaney 
and Bath. He, however, was shortly obliged to withdraw from these east 
to Winchester in the Shenandoah Valley, where his army went into winter 
quarters. 

The success of the national forces in saving West Virginia to the Union 
cause was attributed to the skill and generalship of General McClellan, for 
which he was rewarded by being made Commander-in-Chief of the United 
States Armies. He was hailed by the North as the "Young Napoleon" because 
his age, thirty-five, approximated that of the great French General when 
in the zenith of power. 

The affairs, aside from the Battle of Bull Run, which took place in 
Virginia, east of the Blue Ridge Mountains, in 1861, occurring as they did, 
at a time when the North was in great dismay, were magnified by both 
North and South far beyond their importance. The Little Bethel and Big 
Bethel engagements that occurred just northwest of Fortress Monroe, between 
the Blues under General Butler, and .the Grays under General John B. 
Magruder, created a big sensation. Magruder's main force, during May, 
1861, was at Yorktown, with his outposts at Little and Big Bethel, about one- 
third the distance from Yorktown to Fortress Monroe. On June 10, Butler 
sent out two expeditions for the capture of these outposts, under the united 
command of General Pierce. The first advanced from Hampton, Va., 
under Colonel Townsend, the second from Newport News, under Colonel 
Bendix, the plain being to have them join on the Hampton Road. This 
junction happened to occur just before daybreak, and the darkness, each 
mistaking the other for the enemy began firing. At this time, one small 
party who had forged further to the front, hearing the firing, and thinking 
the enemy was in their rear, retreated rapidly. Then, too, the Grays at 
Little Bethel, also took alarm and fled into the stronger post of Big Bethel. 
Matters, however, were soon straightened out by General Pierce, who 
promptly advanced his forces and occupied Little Bethel. His assault upon 
Big Bethel, which soon followed, met with a decided repulse — a loss of 16 
killed and 39 wounded. The most notable event of this encounter was the 
death of the first regular army officer who fell in the war. It was Lieutenant 
Greble, who, when ordered to advance with his three cannons, predicted the 
disastrous result which followed. He was killed trying to save his guns 
from capture. 

We now come to the events leading up to the first great battle of the 
war, Bull Run, as the Federals called it, Manassas, as the Confederates more 



THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 31 

properly denominated it, since this was the strategic point contended for. 

On May 31, General Beauregard, who was at the time the most popular 
General of the Confederacy, owing to his capture of Fort Sumter, was put in 
command of the Confederate troops which were centered at Manassas, forty 
miles southwest of Washington, preparatory to the capture of Washington. 

Already, on May 24, the First Michigan Regiment, under Colonel Elmer 
Ellsworth, occupied Alexandria, Va., across the Potomac from Washington, 
causing the Confederate garrison there to retire. Colonel Ellsworth climbed 
on the roof of a hotel and cut down a Confederate flag which was there 
flying. As he descended he was shot by the hotel proprietor, who thereupon 
was killed by one of Ellsworth's companions. 

In the same month General Patterson, in command of the Department 
of Pennsylvania, advanced from that State, reaching Cumberland, Md., a 
station of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad west of Harper's Ferry and on 
the western side of the Allegheny Range. Harper's Ferry at this time was 
under the command of the Confederate General, Joseph E. Johnston. A 
part of Patterson's troops, under the command of General Lewis Wallace, 
made a forced march southward and drove, on June 9, some 1,200 Con- 
federate troops south out of Romney, Va., which is some eighty miles south 
of Cumberland. Finding the National troops endangering his line of com- 
munication, Johnston was compelled to evacuate Harper's Ferry, destroying 
before leaving, however, all the bridges, railroad tracks and spiking the guns 
of the forts, and thus the old arsenal again fell into the hands of the Union. 
Paterson started in pursuit, but was obliged to stop as orders from Washing- 
ton required him to send all his regulars and Burnside's regiment to 
Washington to re-enforce General Irvin McDowell, who was preparing for 
Bull Run. Patterson took his stand at Winchester, made another start in 
pursuit of Johnston on July 2, and, meeting the enemy under Stonewall 
Jackson, he forced him south to Bunker Hill; continuing his march he 
entered Bunker Hill July 15, which he found evacuated. On the 17th, 
giving up the chase of the enemy, he retired north eastwardly to Charleston. 
Johnston then slipping through Ashly Gap of the Blue Ridge Mountains, 
joined Beauregard, at Manassas, which brought about the disaster to the 
Union known as "Bull Run." For Patterson's so-called negligence in letting 
Johnston get away he was superceded by General Nathaniel P. Banks. 

On June 19 President Lincoln had called his Cabinet and the leading 
Generals in council, at which it was decided that General McDowell should 
lead the Union forces against Beauregard at Manassas, the Union General-in- 
Chief, Winfleld Scott, being too old for field service. It was Scott, however, who 
laid out a technically correct plan of campaign against the national foe. 
This in general was to press against the Confederates, in the east and west, 
and gradually to surround them. It was known as the "Anacona Plan." 
In the east the plan was in brief for McDowell, with some 15,000 troops, 
to advance and give battle to Beauregard's phalanx of about similar strength, 
while General Robert Paterson, with his Pennsylvania militia, was to 
engage the forces of Grays under Joseph E. Johnston that confronted him 
in the Shenandoah Valley, in order to prevent their junction with Beaure- 
gard's command at Manassas. 

On July 21, the Blues reached the Grays, prepared in line of battle, 
on the south side of Bull Run, a small stream from which the Blues named 



32 T HE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 

the battle. The fight raged fast and furious during the entire day, at its 
end the victory being with the Blues, whose tphole force had won its way, 
crossing the "Run" ready to chase the Grays back towards Richmond the 
next day. But the God of battles destined otherwise, for during the night 
Johnston's command alertly slipped away from the sleepy Patterson, and by 
forced marches through "Ashley Gap" in the range of mountains separating 
the two Gray forces, reached their battle-stained and exhausted comrades 
in the morning. 

With exultant hope buoyed up by the victory of the day before, 
McDowell's Blues promptly renewed the fray, ignorant of the re-enforcing 
host received by the Grays. The sequel is easily imagined — the combined 
forces of the Gray.'-, turned the victory of their foe into an ignominious 
defeat, driving the Blues pell mell in the greatest confusion back across the 
stream. It is recorded that both Blue and Gray fought furiously and with 
surprisingly gallantry for raw troops, charging and counter-charging upon 
each other, until, for some unexplained reason, the Blues suddenly got panic- 
stricken and fled back like sheep, stampeding the horde of their lady and 
gentlemen visitors who had gathered to witness their pet warriors annihilate 
the army of Grays. The casualties of the Blues was some 1,500, about one- 
*hird being killed. They also lost about the same number in prisoners. 
The loss of killed and wounded by the Grays was approximately the same 
as their enemy, while their loss in prisoners was few. 

This disaster to the Union cause at the very outset of the fighting 
created at the North the greatest consternation, even terror, which, coupled 
with anxiety over a possible war with Great Britain, made this period one 
of the most despondent epochs of the war for the North. The battle itself 
decided nothing, both sides being composed of untrained troops enlisted for 
three months, which term of service was about expired. The Confederates 
were unable to follow up the victory and capture Washington. The 
battle never should have occurred. Indeed, McDowell strongly protested 
when orders to advance were issued by the War Department, which was 
done simply to appease the clamor of an intemperate press and impatient 
populace for military action. However, one salutary lesson of this battle 
for the leaders of the North and South, was to convince themselves that 
neither side was at all prepared for war. Now that actual hostilities were 
on, preparations must immediately be made for organizing adequate fighting 
forces . Without delay both started in upon their gigantic tasks. These 
preparations occupied the remaining six months of the first year of the war. 
During the latter of these months there took place a number of disjointed 
encounters between the foes which were preludes to the organized campaigns 
of 1862, which will be recited next. 

On August 4, 1861, General McClellan. in field command of the eastern 
Union forces, presented to the Pre-sident a plan of campaign for the whole 
army. This was the same as Scott's "Anaconda Plan" previously mentioned, 
except that McClellan proposed to thin the coil which was to surround the 
Confederacy in all other parts, but where he was in command, which portion 
he proposed to swell to the enormous aggregate of 273,000 men. So loath 
was he to take the offensive until he had what he considered the proper 
number of troops that he permitted the enemy unmolested to put their 
batteries on the Virginia bank of the Potomac, and so cut off transportation 
to and from the National Capital. 



THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL, WAR 33 

Indeed, the first battle of McClellan's new command occurred without 
his intention. 

This engagement, which created so much pain and chagrin at the North, 
occurred on October 19, 1861, when General McClellan ordered General 
George Archibald McCaul to make a reconnoissance along the enemy's line, 
on the south side of the Potomac River, near Dranesville, western Virginia, 
and at the same time directed General Charles P. Stone to make another 
upon Leesburg. In accordance with these orders. Stone sent Colonel Devins, 
with 650 men in two flat boats, to cross the river from Harrison's Island 
to Ball's Bluff. These bluffs were steep, wet, slippery, clayey hillsides, 
running up 100 feet above the river. Devins, reaching the summit of the 
bluff, and finding no enemy, advanced south to within a niile of Leesburg, 
then halted and asked for further orders. Just then, the enemy's cavalry 
began to surround him. In retiring, he reached an open plain; the enemy, 
keeping in the shelter of the surrounding woods. Here he received orders 
to hold his ground, as reinforcements were on the way. The enemy pursuing 
him he fell back until he reached the brink of the steep bluffs, just as 
Colonel Edward D. Baker arrived with 1,200 fresh troops. A fierce assault 
was then made upon the enemy, during which Baker was killed, and the 
Blues driven pellmell down the bluff to the river. One of the flat boats 
had been taken away, and under the terrific fire, the Blues, in despair, took 
logs, or swam in their endeavor to escape the terrible massacre which followed. 
Their loss was 300 killed, wounded and drowned, and 400 prisoners. Stone 
then got an entire brigade, under Gorman, across the river at Edward's 
Ferry and drove the Grays off. It must be noted that the crossing of 
the river, which brought about the sad calamity and slaughter, was done 
in the face of McClellan's order not to do so. 

The death of Colonel Baker was keenly felt by the North, and particularly 
mourned by President Lincoln, his personal friend. Baker, in order to 
take the field, had resigned his seat as Senator from Oregon, in which 
position he was incontestably the most brilliant debater on the Northern 
side. 

General Stone was made a scapegoat for the defeat, being imprisoned 
for six months on the absurd charge of treason. Genei-al McClellan's repu- 
tation, however, was greatly increased by the disaster, which illustrated his 
contention that the Union army was unprepared to meet the enemy. 

On November 1 McClellan superseded Scott as General-in-Chief of the 
Union forces, Scott ostensibly resigning because of his age, but really because 
of his difficulty in getting along with McClellan. 

McClellan in his new position treated the President with scant courtesy, 
which Lincoln bore with great patience, saying on one occasion that he 
"would hold McClellan's horse," if that would advance the cause of the Union. 

On July 2 6 General C. Fremont with considerable flourish took command 
of the Western Military Department, with headquarters at St. Louis. Ke 
entered upon his duties most inauspiciously. On August 10 the brave 
General Lyon was defeated by General Price and killed at the battle of 
Wilson's Creek (called by the Confederates Oak Hill), near Springfield, Mo. 
It is charged that Fremont, through a perverse sense of autocracy, if not 
jealously, brought about this loss of one of the most promising Union com- 
manders by wilful failure to reinforce Lyon, isolated in southwestern 



34 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 

Missouri amid gathering foes. Certainly Fremont consistently refused to 
consult with either his superiors or subordinates, , and this caused the Admin- 
istration great trouble and thoroughly demoralized his department. 

Fremont, having been the first Republican candidate for President, was 
very popular in the North, especially with the anti-slavery radicals. Relying 
on this, he was not alone in.surbordinate in obeying military orders, but he 
also began to "play politics," by acting on his own initiative in the matter 
of slavery. Now President Lincoln, in the contest to win the Border States 
to the Union, on which he had set his heart, resolved to allow no interference 
with the slaves of Union men, intending, when the proper time came, to 
offer compensation to such owners if they would emancipate them. 

Toward the slaveholding secessionists, on the contrary, he and Congress 
adopted a most drastic policy. On July 22, the day following Bull Run, the 
Senate voted to confiscate the slaves employed in aid of the rebellion. Credit 
for pointing out the military principle upon which this confiscation was 
justified belongs to General Butler. In May he was in command at Fortress 
Monroe, Va., and had as his opponent John B. Magruder, who, having few 
troops, put negroes at the task of constructing earthworks. Some of these 
ran away to Fortress Monroe. Three were slaves of a Colonel Mallory, who 
demanded their return under the Fugitive Slave Law. Now Butler was a 
keen lawyer, if an inferior general, and he took a reasonable legal position 
in refusing the bold demand, replying that, as Virginia claimed to be a 
foreign State, its citizens, at least those who endorsed this claim, could not 
consistently assert as their right a duty of the nation to one of its States. 
This reason led to an even more advanced position, namely, that slaves 
employed in aid of rebellion were "contraband of war." Since the 
Southerners regarded slaves as chattels they could not except to this conclu- 
sion. The humor of the contention appealed strongly to the people of the 
North, who immediately dubbed all negroes "contrabands." 

The popular applause gained by General Butler for his po.sition 
undoubtedly inclined Fremont to "go him one better" in negro emancipation. 
On August 30 he issued a proclamation emancipating slaves in his depart- 
ment as a military act, without regard to whether or not they were employed 
in Confederate military work. On September 2 President Lincoln wrote 
ordering him to modify his proclamation to make it conform to the con- 
fiscatory act of Congress, saying that the liberation of slaves in general 
would alienate Southern Unionists, and even precipate Kentucky into the 
Confederacy, just when it was abandoning its position of armed neutrality 
"and raising troops for the Union." 

Indeed, from the beginning, inhabitants of the Border States of Kentucky, 
Tennessee, Missouri and western Virginia, were unfriendly to secession. It 
would seem that the relative sparseness of the slave population had largely 
to do with the matter. For instance, while in round numbers, Virginia 
held half a million of slaves, few of these were in the western part; Kentucky 
had but one-quarter of a million, Missouri one-eighth of a million, and 
eastern Tennessee, where loyalty to the Union was more fervent than even 
in Massachusetts, had scarcely any slaves. It was to relieve these East 
Tennessee Unionists, who were harried by the Confederates "like wild beasts," 
to use Andrew Johnson's expression, that Lincoln felt called on to interfere 
with the military plans of Union generals, such as Don Carlos Buell. 



THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 35 



After Price's victory over Lyon, the Confederate General moved north- 
ward without opposition till, on September 18, he met the Chicago Irish 
Brigade, under Colonel James A. Mulligan, at Lexington, on the Missouri 
River. Mulligan, after holding the place against great odds for two days, 
vainly awaiting reinforcements from Fremont, was compelled to surrender. 
This disturbed President Lincoln greatly, and through General Scott he 
ordered Fremont to "repair the disaster at Lexington without loss of time." 
So desirous was he that Fremont should take the offensive that in a memo- 
i-andum made about October 1 proposing a defensive plan of campaign, he 
specifically exempted him from the general inaction. 

Nevertheless, Fremont did nothing, permitting Price to retreat safely to 
soutnwestern Missouri, and so he was superseded late in October by Major- 
General liavid Hunter. On March 11, 1862, another trial was given Fremont 
by placing him in command of a new military district, the Mountain 
Department, chiefly comprising West Virginia. On the same date Hunter 
was also sent to command a new department, that of the South, comprising 
South Carolina, Georgia and Florida. Fatuously in view of the Government's 
action in the case of Fremont's proclamation, Hunter, on May 9, 1862, 
proclaimed emancipation in his department. Lincoln at once annulled the 
proclamation in vigorous language. 

On November 9, 1861, the Department of the West was divided into the 
Department of Kansas, including that State and the Territories of Nebraska, 
Colorado, Dakota and Indian Territory, and the Department of Missouri, 
including Missouri, Arkansas, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois and that 
part of Kentucky west of the Cumberland River. Hunter was placed in 
command of the former department, with headquarters at Fort Leavenworth, 
and Henry W. Halleck was placed in command of the latter, with head- 
quarters at St. Louis. 

In June Governor Richard Yates, of Illinois, appointed a citizen of Galena 
colonel of the Twenty-flrst Illinois Volunteers. This was Ulysses S. Grant, 
a retired Army officer, and graduate of West Point, who had displayed great 
ability as a lieutenant in the Mexican War, especially in handling supplies 
and transporting soldiers. Grant assumed command on June 17, and, the 
regiment being insubordinate like most civilian soldiers at that period of 
the war, he set to work drilling them patiently and pertinaciously, but with 
little success. Accordingly, when orders came to transport them to northern 
Missouri, where they were to suppress bushwhackers, he seized the oppor- 
tunity afforded for more drastic discipline by marching them thither instead 
of transporting them by rail. 

Grant was assigned to a command under General John Pope, who was 
completing his task of driving out the Confederates from northern Missouri. 
On August 7 he received a commission of Brigadier-General of Volunteers. 

On August 28 General Fremont sent Grant to southeastern Missouri to 
guard against a threatened attack by General Leonidas Polk, coming up the 
Mississippi River. Polk had started early in September with 15,000 troops 
to capture Cairo, Illinois, at the junction of the Mississippi and Ohio. Grant 
had with him 14,000 troops. Setting out to take Columbus, Ky., on a high 
bluff of the Mississippi, below the mouth of the Ohio, Grant discovered that 
Polk would arrive there ahead of him, and so, with characteristic celerity he 
changed his plans, and from Cairo, as headquarters, sent an expedition which 



36 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 

occupied Paducah, Kentucky, a more important place strategically than 
Columbus, since it was in the Ohio at the mouth of the Tennessee River, and 
near the mouth of the Cumberland River, both waterways through western 
Kentucky into Tennessee. 

On November 6 and 7 Grant led an expedition against an encampment 
of Confederates at Belmont, Mo., opposite their garrison at Columbus, Ky., 
on the Mississippi, capturing it after a close contest. But his troops gave 
themselves up to disorderly rejoicing, of which Polk took advantage by 
throwing troops across the river, and driving the victors from the field. 
Grant, however, showed himself a good strategist by retreating in good order. 

At the time of Grant's descent on Paducah, General Anderson, in charge 
of eastern and central Kentucky, was transferring his headquarters from 
Cincinnati to Louisville. With his two efficient subordinates, 'Brigadier- 
Generals William T. Sherman and George H. Thomas, he set about resisting 
the Confederate invasion of Kentucky from the southeast, General F. K. 
Zollicoffer having entered the State from Tennessee through Cumberland Gap 
on September 10, shortly after General Polk had occupied Columbus. In 
cooperation with the movements of Polk and Zollicoffer the secession 
militia of Kentucky had occupied Bowling Green in the center of the State, 
and threatened to move on Frankfort, the State Capital, and dispersing the 
Union Legislature there assembled, form a Secession Legi-slature which 
should organize a Confederate State Government. 

In view of this situation President Lincoln, about October 1, 1861, 
elaborated his military policy. 

He stated that Zollicoffer, with 6,000 or 8,000 troops was at Barboursville, 
25 miles north of Cumberland Gap; opposed to him was Thomas,, with 5,000 
or 6,000 troops, at Camp Dick Robinson, 25 miles south of Lexington; 
Buckner at Bowling Green had 8,000 men; opposed to him was Sherman 
with an equal force at Muldraugh's Hill, 40 miles south of Louisville on the 
railroad to Nashville, Tenn., which the Confederates held south of the Hill. 
Grant's troops at Paducah, and other Union forces along the Ohio, chiefly on 
the northern side, were, with the river gunboats, sufficient to guard the 
lower Ohio from Polk's invasion. 

Lincoln desired that, when a descent which was preparing against the 
Southern seaboard was launched, Thomas with his troops and all the Union 
forces at Cincinnati, Louisville and along the line, were to march against 
Zollicoffer, while Sherman held Buckner at bay. Till the coast movement 
was begun, vigilant watching was to be adopted. 

In general, Lincoln desired all the Union Generals, east and west, to 
remain on the defensive, except Fremont, who was urged to be active. 

In view of these extensive movements contemplated. General Anderson, 
who was in poor health, resigned on October 8. He was succeeded in com- 
mand of the department by Sherman. 

From the beginning Sherman had prophesied that the war would be a 
long and bitter conflict, and had received the nickname of "Crazy Billy" 
because of this prediction. On taking command he began urging the 
Government to supply him with more troops. This was not done, and 
Sherman, saying that his forces "were too small to do good, and too large 
to sacrifice," asked that his command be transferred to some one of "more 
sanguine mind" since he was forced to order according to his convictions. 



THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL, WAR 37 

Accordingly, on November 9, the Department of the Ohio was formed out of 
Sherman's forces with Don Carlos Buell, a personal friend of General-in- 
Chief McClellan, in command, with McClellan's particular injunctions to 
capture East Tennessee, on which the President had set his heart, and, if 
possible, Nashville. By Lincoln's express request Sherman was retained in 
the Louisville command. 

Buell, a competent strategist, did not think well of the plan to capture 
East Tennessee, believing that Nashville was the proper object. He, how- 
ever, did not voice his objections — indeed, he returned evasive answers on 
the point to Washington, and went ahead preparing for the West Tennessee 
campaign until on January 4, 18 62, Lincoln wired him: "Have arms gone 
forward for East Tennessee?" Buell then coolly confessed that he had 
directed all his plans against Nashville. Lincoln replied in a tone of sad 
acceptance of the situation, which had developed too far for change, and 
McClellan, who desired the invasion of East Tennessee in order to hold 
a great deal of unnecessary suffering among ill-prepared, inexperienced 
Confederate forces there so that they could not reinforce the troops in opposi- 
tion to his own especial command, wrote Buell a letter which, polite in 
phrase, was stinging in its censure. Halleck, at St. Louis, also disapproved 
of Buell's plans, fearing that they invited a disaster comparable with Bull 
Run. 

Lincoln, on January 13, 1862 wrote to both Halleck and Buell, suggesting 
that the former menace Columbus and "down river" generally, while the 
latter menaced Bowling Green and East Tennessee. In response Buell sent 
Thomas against Zollicoffer. On the 19th the Union General defeated the 
Confederate at Mill Springs, killing Zollicoffer and dispersing his troops. 

Another engagement took place at Paintville, on the Big Sandy River, 
between some 2,000 Grays, under Humphrey Marshall, and a similar number 
under Colonel James A. Garfield, on January 10, 1862, when the Grays were 
forced to retire. 

George H. Thomas, who commanded at Mill Springs and afterwards 
became a noted General, was born in Virginia, and at the beginning of the 
war was a Major in Colonel Robert E. Lee's regiment of the United States 
Army. The Southern historian, George Cary Bggleston, says: "The roster 
of his fellow officers included, besides Lee, Albert Sydney Johnston, William 
J. Harder, Earle Van Dorn, E. Kirby Smith and Pitzhugh Lee. All of these 
resigned their commissions and accepted service in the Confederate Army." 
But Thomas decided to stand by his flag. 

Had not Grant already opened the way to the invasion of Tennessee on 
the west, Buell would undoubtedly have entered the State through Cum- 
berland Gap. 

These comprise in the main all the military affairs of 1861, which, 
while being mere preludes to the organized campaigns, inaugurated by both 
combatants early in 1862, still it must not be overlooked that they entailed 
recruits, marching and counter-marching through rough mountainous regions 
which, from want of properly organized transportation of supplies, made 
campaigning slow and arduous in the extreme. These operations were, at 
the time, subjected to severe criticism for the want of military precision, 
and were dubbed "Pepper Box Strategy." In extenuation it must be said 
that not only the rank and file were raw recruits, but also many of the com- 



38 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 

manding officers were inexperienced in warfare. Later on in the war, such 
small affairs as some of the battles described were hardly, if ever, mentioned 
and yet they embodied the same heroism that exhibited during the entire 
war on the part of both the Blue and Gray. 

The pei"siial of the dry narration of the disjointed affaii"s of 1861 has 
deterred many a reader fi"oni stoinji" on through the remaining three years. 
But the pei'sistent reader .soon finds, when both combatants get their armies 
into departments, which was accomijlished early in 1862, and conduct their 
campaigns upon scientific plans, the story then takes on deep, absorbing and 
interesting reading. 



THE CAMPAIGNS OP THE CIVIL WAR 39 



CHAPTER IV. 

Naval Affairs to the Merrimac-Monitor Fight, 1861-1862. 

Blockade of Southern Ports— Naval Preparations — Capture of Hatteras 

Capture of Port Royal — Capture of Fort Roanoke — Battles of the Merrimac 
and Monitor. 

As will be narrated in the succeeding chapter the operations of the war 
on the land were conducted in conjunction with those on the sea. It is in 
place, therefore, to give an account here of the naval conduct of the war 
during the first year of the great contest. 

Owing to the insufficiency of naval equipment the blockade declared by 
President Lincoln on April 19, 1S61, was for some time most ineffective, 
although great efforts were made under direction of Gideon Wells, Secretary 
of the_ Navy, to create a fleet for ocean warfare as well as flotillas of light 
draft gunboats for operating on the Southern rivers. Some idea of the 
celerity made on these vast preparations is to be gained when it is remem- 
bered that there were in the Navy but forty-two vessels fit for services, and 
that within six months the Navy numbered nearly 300 ships. This result 
was largely attained by pressing into service the whole available Merchant 
Marine. At the close of the war, the Navy had nearly 700 vessels, and 
during the last year or two, the effectiveness of the blockade was such that 
the Confederate States were entirely cut off from foreign communications, 
this being evinced by the finding at the close of hostilities some three hundred 
million dollars' worth of cotton which the Southern planters had been unable 
to export. 

The marvelously rapid progress commanded the wonder and admiration 
of foreign powers. Never before had like achievements been accomplished 
in such a short length of time. 

As has been already noted, there were no cable communications with 
Europe in those days, for the cable laid in 1858, quickly went out of com- 
mission, and it was not until a year after the war that electrical connection 
across the Atlantic was realized. 

Never in naval warfare had a nation been confronted by such a colossal 
undertaking, that of blockading an enemy's seacoast three thousand miles 
long (from Hatteras, N. C, to Galveston, Texas,) together with numerous 
intersecting harbors and navigable rivers. 

To European powers the suggestions were considered preposterous with 
the inadequate fleet of forty vessels. The effort was quaintly dubbed "A 
paper blockade," evidently at the beginning a fitting appellation, since 
numerous foreign ships with stores for the Grays easily succeeded in breaking 
through it. Especially was this the case at Hatteras Inlet, N. C. This one 
port was effectually closed, however, on August 29, by the capture of the 
Confederate forts there by an expedition of ships and troops, commanded 
respectively by Flag Officer Silas H. Stringham and General B. F. Butler. 
By the fall of 1861, the blockading fleet had acquired such strength and 
efficiency that "Blockade Running" was made very hazardous. The base 
of supplies of these sentinal ships along the coast, being at the distant port 
of New York City, it was imperative for the Navy to have a more convenient 



40 THE CAMPAIGNS OP THE CIVIL WAR 

one nearer the field of action. For this purpose Port Royal, S. C, was 
selected. 

Port Royal is an excellent harbor, at the junction of the Beaufort and 
Broad Rivers, lying about midway between Charleston, S. C, and Savannah, 
Ga. The entrance to the harbor is two miles wide. At the time of the 
expedition fitted out for its capture under Captain Samuel F. Dupont and 
General Thomas W. Sherman, was guarded on the west by Fort Walker at 
Hilton Head and opposite on Philips Island by Fort Beauregard, besides 
other works. Dupont had a very formidable fleet of over sixty vessels, while 
the troops in the transports under Sherman numbered 15,000. 

After a terrific ocean storm that scattered the fleet and during which 
some of the transports with their troops sank, Dupont gathered his com- 
mand and began the attack on November 4. Besides the fortifications 
mentioned, the Grays had a small fleet of especially constructed light draft 
gunboats under command of Commodore Josiah Tattnal, which the Yankee 
sailors dubbed the "Mosquito Fleet." 

These were quickly forced several iniles up the Beaufort River and held 
there. Dupont deploying his ships in the forin of an ellipse, the north end 
of which extended inland some two miles, began the attacks on the forts. 
Each vessel proceeded northward, and, while passing Fort Walker delivered 
its fire, and then, returning southward, fired on Port Beauregard. Three of 
these trips, which occupied a few hours, sufficed to force the Grays to 
abandon all their works. General Sherman's troops, landing on Hilton 
Head, occupied not only these forts, but also took the town of Beaufort. 
In this engagement the loss to the Grays of munitions of war was large. 
Thus was established an excellent naval base. On April 10, 18 62, another 
expedition was sent against Atlantic ports lying fifteen miles west of the 
mouth of the Savannah River. This harbor was defended by Fort Pulaski, 
and up the river near the city was another smaller work called Fort Jackson. 
Finding an old artificial waterway to the north, the Union troops, after much 
arduous labors through the swamps established a strong work with heavy 
guns inland on Tybee Island confronting Fort Pulaski. A bombardment of 
fifteen hours by the cannoneers and fleet compelled the surrender of the fort. 
The Confederate fleet being hemmed up the river, Savannah was thus 
effectually blockaded. 

During the following month the ports of Fernandino at Cedar Keys, 
Brunswick, the terminus of the Brunswick and Pensocola Railroad, and 
Jacksonville on the St. John's River, Fla., were captured by the Blues 
without inuch resistance, and their defenses occupied by the National 
forces. 

Next came General Ambrose E. Burnside's expedition for the capture 
of Roanoke Island, N. C, from which the Grays had been driven by Butler 
in August. This was necessary because the Pamlico and Albemarle Sounds 
were the outlets of many rivers, canals and railroads from the interior, and 
blockade runners and privateers were constantly using these water-ways. 

Furthermore, this Roanoke Island was the key to all ocean communica- 
tions to Norfolk on the James River, Va. It commanded two sounds, eight 
rivers, four canals and two railroads and also controlled the seaboard from 
Oregon Inlet to Cape Henry. Burnside started January 7, 18 62, to unite 
with Lieutenant Louis M. Goldsborough's fleet of thirty-one gunboats, his 



■ THE CAMPAIGNS OF T HE CIVIL WAR 41 

12,000 troops conveyed in forty-seven transports. Some despicable New 
York contractors palmed off on the Government such worthless ships that 
in a storm off Cape Hatteras some were lost. One called "New York 
City," with one-quarter million dollars' worth of stores aboard, went to pieces, 
delaying the expedition so that it did not reach Grootan Sound until 
February 7. Landing his troops in water waist deep, Burnside attacked the 
forts. In the affray, Captain Wise, son of the Confederate Commander, 
was mortally wounded. Wise, the elder, was ill at Nagshead. 

The fleet pursued the Confederate gunboats to Elizabeth River and 
destroyed them. Besides the capture of the forts, the Blues entered several 
small towns, and, on March 14, attacked and captured the city of Newbern, 
together with a large amount of stores and guns. A month later, Fort 
Macon, which commanded the entrance of Beaufort Harbor, was taken by 
the Blues. This secured to the National forces all the important ports, 
and, as the plan of campaign did not contemplate further penetration 
inland by troops, Burnside's army was ordered to Alexandria, Va., to reinforce 
General Pope. The capture by the Blues of these places along the coast 
was attended by little fighting, for at this early stage of the war, the South 
was not in readiness to sufficiently and properly guard so many numerable 
points. Besides, such forts as existed were old, weak affairs. Furthermore, 
she was too busy massing her troops in Virginia and in the West, which left 
the coast practically undefended. 

While the armies of the Blue and the Gray in Tennessee, west of the 
Allegheny Mountains, and those ea.st of those broad, rugged ranges in Virginia, 
were fighting like heroes and carving out pages of human history, there 
occurred that famous Naval duel between entirely new forms of fighting 
ships, that unique and spectacular sea engagement between the Monitor and 
the Merrimac. 

This remarkable incident revolutionized the whole of modern Naval 
warfare, and became the forerunner of those gigantic "Dreadnoughts" 
predominating all the navies of to-day. The accepted plan generally 
recognized throughout the world at this epoch, was the equipping of 
immense full-rigged modern sailing fighters, with tiers of heavy guns 
planted on either sides of the vessels, from which broadsides of solid shot 
and shell could be hurled against the enemy. Only a few of these monsters 
were propelled by steam. But now all was to be changed; the day of the 
wooden vessel was passed; the iron-clad had come to stay. 

Of course, the covering of the exposed parts of the hull of a war vessel 
had been used long before to a limited extent. In 1782, the French and 
Spaniards, at the siege of Gibraltar, used batteries made by covering the 
exposed portions with iron. "The first application of iron for this purpose," 
says Knight in his Mechanical Dictionary, "was by the French during the 
Crimean War of 1855 to gunboats." 

Just before our Civil War, the Government had finished one of the 
monster wooden frigates, called the Merrimac, at a cost of over one and a 
half million dollars, and equipped it with every modern improvements. 
This great warship fell into the hands of the Confederates at the time of the 
seizure of the navy yard at Norfolk, Virginia, and was converted by them 
into a powerful "Ironclad Ram," which they called the Virginia. The 
original hull of the Merrimac was roofed over with heavy timber, and this 



42 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 

covered with a coating of iron mail three-quarters of an inch thick, and 
carried down two feet below the water line. "She looked like an ark." 
At her bow was a heavy, strong, iron beak for ramming purposes. Her 
armament consisted of four eleven-inch guns on either side, besides a one 
hundred pound Armstrong gun both at bow and stern. 

On Saturday, March 6, 1862, acconripanied by two other steam gunboats, 
she steamed out of the navy yard, at Norfolk, down Hampton Roads under 
command of Franklin Buchanan, formerly a United States officer, whose 
brother, McKean Buchanan, was paymaster on the Union ship Congress, 
which was sunk by the Merrimac. 

Passing the United States frigate Congress, and receiving a hole broad- 
side from that vessel, which produced no apparent effect on her iron mail, 
she made at once a furious attack upon the United States war sloop Cumher- 
landj with a crew of 376 men. Dashing under full speed, the ram struck 
the sloop a savage blow with her iron beak, at the same instant letting fire 
the whole force of her batteries, causing the Cumherland to settle. Still the 
ram kept pouring shot and shell into her antagonist at close range, until 
after a short time, the brave, staunch war sloop went down in fifty feet of 
water, carrying under over one hundred helpless, sick and wounded men. 
Having thus demolished the CumTyerland, the Merrimac now returned to the 
attack of the frigate Congress that had pelted her so harmlessly a while 
before. The frigate had been run aground by her commander to prevent 
sinking. The ironclad, under full head of steam rammed with terrific force 
into the stern of the frigate, at the .same time delivering incessant volleys of 
shot and shell, when the Congress took fire in several places. Her com- 
mander, Morris, was killed; the crew immediately abandoned their ship, and 
at midnight she blew up. Out of her crew of 434 only 218 escaped. In 
the space of a few hours this iron monster had destroyed two great war 
ships, and had slain over 300 men without receiving hardly a scratch. Still 
not satiated, she turned to the attack of a third, the frigate Minnesota which 
had been run aground near Sewell's Point, and, being in shoal water, the 
ram was unable to get nearer to her than a mile. The two lighter draft 
vessels accompanying the Merrimac, however, getting into closer range, killed 
a number of the Minnesota's crew. Then night coming on, the victorious 
Confederate fleet retired behind Sewell's Point for rest. Two other Union 
Warships, the St. Lawrence and Roanoke, were run aground on the northerly 
shore near Newport News. It was evident to all that the grand old frigates 
had met an invincible foe in this iron ram; they were helpless. But in the 
night, during the lamentations of the defeated and suffering Union sailors, 
there appeared, as if by magic, a "Hostia Saviour" destined to turn the tide 
,. of war. It was 9 P. M. when John Ericsson's Monitor, under command of 
Lieutenant John L. Worden, reached Fortress Monroe, after a dreadful 
stormy passage of three days, from the ship yards in New York, where she 
had been constructed. Captain Ericsson, the inventor, first proposed this 
iron-turretted Monitor to Emperor Napoleon, in 1854. In 1855, Captain 
Coles of the English Navy proposed a somewhat similar idea. Prior to 
these, however, T. R. Trinity had gotten a patent for a turreted ironclad in 
1843. It was proved afterwards, however, that neither Trinity nor Ericsson 
knew of the other's plans or invention. Ericsson's contract for the con- 
struction of the Monitor was made in September, 1861. She had a low, 
square deck overhanging the hull proper six feet at the sides, and twenty- 



THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 43 

Ave feet at the stern which was intended to make her sail steady in the sea. 
This deck was only eighteen inches above the water line. On top of it, about 
midship, was a revolving turret, twenty feet in diameter and nine feet high, 
the walls of which were of rolled iron plate one inch thick, with the top and 
sides covered with mail grating of railroad iron. The turret was pierced for 
two eleven-inch Dahlgren guns. These guns and the turret rested upon a 
revolving platform which was operated by the engines, they and the boilers 
being located in the hull aft, while the hull forward was set aside for the 
ammunition and crew's quarters. An iron pilot-house set forward on the 
deck had peep holes for lookout. The length of the vessel was one hundred 
and seventy-two feet, the beam forty feet and the draft twelve feet. The 
sailors nick-named this queer looking craft, "A Yankee cheese-box on a 
raft." 

About midnight, this curious nondescript, anchored alongside the sadly 
distressed Minnesota. 

Early on that beautiful Sunday morning of March 7, 1862, the Merri7nac 
and her two consorts, entirely unconscious of the Monitor's presence, sallied 
forth to renew the attack upon the Minnesota, and, passing with unconcern 
and even with disdain the "Yankee Cheese-box" opened fire on the frigate. 
Then suddenly the Monitor closed in, and with revolving turret let fire her 
two eleven-inch guns, which compelled the Merrimac to turn about on this 
new-fangled foe presuming to stop her. The return shots of the Southerner 
passed harmlessly over the low lying deck of the Monitor. One solid missile, 
however, struck the little craft's turret, and, penetrating a short distance 
into the iron armor, broke off, leaving the head sticking in. 

Several tinaes the Merrimac tried to ram her powerful beak into her 
antagonist, receiving each time the latter's terrific fire at short range. 
Finally she accidentally got aground, when the Monitor, sailing around her, 
kept incessantly banging away at her iron mail. The Minnesota also took 
a hand in sending broadsides of solid shot, when soon the iron mail of the 
Merrimac began to bend. Getting afloat again, the ram left the little 
pestering Yankee and turned savagely upon the Minnesota, sending a shell 
squarely into her and seting the frigate on fire. The light draft Monitor 
then succeeded in getting in between the two, when the Merrimac again 
got aground, receiving another broadside from the Minnesota. Getting free 
again, the Merrimac retired into the open sea with the little Yankee following 
hard at her heels. Turning suddenly, she rammed the Monitor and for an 
instant the two clinched, her iron beak having passed clear over the latter's 
deck. Quickly the little craft glided from under, at the same instant giving 
her enemy a crushing shot that caused the ram to sag, and, as if having 
enough, the Merrimac gave up the battle and withdrew to the safe shore of 
Craney Island. 

The last shot fired at the Monitor struck the lookout, just as Commander 
John L. Worden was making observations. He was knocked down uncon- 
scious and blinded. This was the only casualty sustained on board the 
Yankee craft. The breaking in of a nine by twelve-inch iron beam was 
the only injury that befell the Monitor under all the terrific hail of shot, at 
short range to which she had been subjected. This supremely grand 
spectacular, but terrible contest was witnessed by thousands of people from 
either shore, who could plainly see the combatants sailing amidst the floating 
corpses of the slain of the day before. 



44 THE C AMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 

The losses on the Merrimac were two killed and nineteen wounded. 
Among the latter was the Commander. This 'wai'ship never was in aonther 
battle. She was shortly after her encounter with the Monitor put in repair 
ano kept ready for action, but when the Union forces entered Norfolk, Va., 
in the following May, the retiring Confederates blew up their craft in order 
to prevent its falling into the hands of the enemy. It was impossible for 
her to retire up the river as a sandbar prevented this. 

The life of the Monitor was not a long one either, for she sank off 
Hatteras, December 31, 1862. It is supposed her deck was strained and 
parted in falling in with the rough sea. Four officers and twelve men 
perished with her. The remainder of the crew was saved by the steamer 
Rhode Island. 

A number of Monitor type of warships were ordered by the Government 
after the successful demonstration against the Merrimac class. England 
also began at once constructing along the same lines as those proposed by 
Captain Coles in 1855. Between the years of 1861 and 1867, fifty monitors 
were built by the United States Government. Adiniral David D. Porter 
gave as his opinion that the monitors built on the western rivers were the 
most powerful vessels of war ever launched. The Cincinnati in 1865 he 
thought "could commence at Cairo and, going down the river [Mississippi] 
destroy everything we have on these waters unless they ran away." But 
to-day, fifty-three years after the wonderful event of the Monitor and 
Merrimac, Germany is considering the advisability of going back to the 
monitor system as being superior to the massive dreadnought type. 



THE CAMPAIGNS OP THE CIVIL, WAR 45 



CHAPTER V. 
Western Campaigns of 1862. 

Appointment of Stanton as Secretary of War — Military Preparations — 
General-in-Chief McClellan's Plan of Campaign — President Lincoln's War 
Order — Events in Arkansas — Pea Ridge- — Grant's Campaign in Kentucky and 
Tennessee — Capture of Forts Henry and Donelson — Capture of Island No. 
10 — Capture of Fort Pillow — Pittsburg Landing — Mitchel's Raid Against 
Chattanooga — Confederate Conscription — Capture of Corinth — Halleck 
Supersedes McClellan — Bragg's Raid Against Louisville — luka — Repulse of 
Confederates at Corinth — Perryville — Rosecrans Supersedes Buell — Murfrees- 
borough — Treatment of Fugitive Slaves by Union Generals — Grant's Appre- 
hensions About the War — Grant's First Operations Against Vicksburg — Van 
Dorn's Capture of Holly Springs — Sherman's Repulse at Yazoo Bluffs- 
Capture of Arkansas Post — Controversy Over McClernand's Supersession of 
Sherman. 

During 18 61 the conduct of the war had been greatly hampered by the 
fact that the most important office of the Government next to the President's 
was filled by a politician who was more concerned in looking out for his 
friends, than in vigorously prosecuting the war. Simon Cameron, Secretary 
of War, had secured this position by throwing the votes of Pennsylvania to 
Lincoln at the Republican convention of 1860. 

Finally, on January 1, 1862, Lincoln got rid of the National incubus by 
appointing Cameron minister to Russia. As his successor the President 
chose a man who had treated him (Lincoln) with the greatest disrespect, 
both as a fellow lawyer in a patent case in which they were associated 
(Manny vs. McCormick), and as a critic of his administration. Indeed, he 
had gone so far as to refer to Lincoln as "the imbecile at the White House." 
This was Edwin M. Stanton, who had been Attorney-General in the closing 
days of Buchanan's administration, when he did much to foil the plans of 
the secessionists. Recognizing Stanton's loyalty to the Union and his great 
ability, Lincoln put aside his personal feelings and chose him as the man 
who was henceforth to divide with him the chief labors of the administra- 
tion. Stanton became the warmest friend Lincoln ever had. He died a 
year after the close of the war worn out by his exertions for the Union — 
as truly a martyr as Lincoln himself. 

Prior to August, 1861, the Federal forces had been little better than 
"armed mobs." Afterwards began the organization into corps of the vast 
number of volunteers as they rushed to the various camps. 

General-in-Chief of the army, Scott, resigning, George B. McClellan was 
appointed in his place on November 1, and to him was assigned at Wash- 
ington the duty of organizing and equipping the armies. This he did with 
most consummate skill and celerity, so that by January 1, 1862, the National 
forces, numbering 700,000, were in good military shape. The Government 
having but one arsenal — that at Springfield, Mass. — whose capacity was only 
200,000 arms a year, was compelled to send to Europe for arms. 

In haste to complete all these vast engines of war, every available forge, 
foundry and mill were pushed to the utmost capacity day and night. 



46 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 

The capital of the nation at Washington was without defenses, and the 
enemy within a few miles of its doors. Here had to be hurriedly constructed 
■and manned many fortifications. 

In the West, under General Henry W. Halleck, at St. Louis, Mo., the 
same active preparations were being pushed rapidly along, but that depart- 
ment often complained that they were slighted, and that too much had been 
lavished upon McClellan in the East. In the hurry and confusion, naturally 
incident to such vast works, ramifying through practically all trades, so 
much "grafting" was reported, that General McClellan issued orders directing 
the immediate prosecution, without mercy, of all persons caught defrauding 
the Government. 

Even as early as August, 1861, McClellan, in a report to the President, 
outlined a plan of war, in which he recommended that simultaneous 
operations be made along the lines, with the purpose, in view, of first 
opening up the Mississippi River from Cairo to the Gulf; secondly, to drive 
the enemy out of Missouri, Kentucky and Tennessee, and then to capture 
Richmond, Va. These movements to be rapidly followed by attacks on 
Charleston, S. C, and Savannah, Ga., on the Atlantic Coast, and also on 
New Orleans, La. 

All the campaigns of 18 62, as will be seen, were conducted virtually in 
accordance with this plan. 

McClellan, in his organizations of the National forces, established five 
military departments as follows: 

Igt New Mexixco, under Colonel Edward R. S. Canby. 

2d Kansas, under General David Hunter. 

3(j — Mississippi, under General Henry W. Halleck. 

4th — Ohio, under General Don Carlos Buell. 

5th^West Virginia, under General William S. Rosencrans. 

Besides these, a sixth department was formed early in 1862, under 
General Benjamin F. Butler, to co-operate with Admiral David G. Farragut 
in the capture of New Orleans, La. 

On January 27, 1862, President Lincoln issued a war order setting 
February 2 2, Washington's Birthday, as the day for a general movement of 
all the land and naval forces against the enemy. Taken in connection with 
the recent appointment of an able Executive (Stanton) as Secretary of War, 
this assumption of military leadership by the President inspired new hope in 
the North, and filled with enthusiasm the soldiers, impatient for advance. 

Following this order, there opened the terrible clash of campaigns in 
the early spring. Grant against Albert Sidney Johnston in Tennessee; 
McClellan against Lee in eastern Virginia; Pope on his triumphant, but 
hardly molested march down the banks of the Mississippi, and Banks against 
Stonewall Jackson in the Shenandoah Valley. In conjunction with these 
movements Admiral Farragut battered at the defenses of New Orleans; 
and the ships of the Atlantic fleet pounded at the Confederate coast forti- 
fications, all forming, as Stanton said in his report to Congress, " a theatre 
of war, which in extent of territory covered and the number of men engaged, 
as was never before witnessed in modern warfare." 

Before Halleck took command at Missouri there had been two advances 
of the National forces, but nothing was accomplished and the Union troops 
in each case were forced to retreat. These retreats left the Union inhabitants 



THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 



to the mercies of their slave-holding neighbors and they suffered greatly at 
the hands of their opponents. 

General Samuel R. Curtis started on Februai-y 11, 1862, under orders 
froin Halleck to advance on the Confederates in West Missouri under Price, 
but that general, not seeing fit to give battle, fell back some fifty miles into 
Arkansas, joining there two troops under Ben. McCulloch and Earl Van 
Dorn, respectively,, making up a force of 20,000 men, which were placed 
under command of General Van Dorn. Curtis, who had followed closely 
the retreating Grays, then finding his force outnumbered two to one, ceased 
his advancing and on March 5, during a severe cold spell and along execrable 
roads, he was forced to retire before the strengthened enemy. Under 
deadly firing he skillfully concentrated his forces at Pea Ridge, Arkansas. 
This famous fight of Pea Ridge, called by the Grays "Elks HcJrn," began 
on the biting cold morning of March 7, 18 62, and continued with fierce 
attacks along the whole line of the Blues. Night found the National Army 
defeated on its right, its line of retreat occupied by the enemy, and the men 
and animals without food, and the troops half clad in an arctic atmosphere. 
But the left of Curtis had succeeded in beating the Confederates on their 
right. At sunrise the next day the battle was renewed with ferocious energy 
on each side, when Curtis by skillful maneuvering succeeded in getting the 
enemy under a terrific cross-fire from his 49 guns, forcing Van Dorn to 
retire. Van Dorn retreated south, while Curtis was glad to retire with all 
speed into Missouri. It is of interest to note that the Confederates had in 
the battle of Pea Ridge some 5,000 Creek and Cherokee Indians, who were 
expected to be of great service. This, however, was not the case for the 
movements and noise of the artillery held these savages spellbound. 

The Confederates established their fir.st line of battle west of the 
Allegheny Mountains, extending through Kentucky, with its left resting at 
Columbus, a strategically fortified city on the Missis.sippi River, and its right 
at Bowling Green, a fortified camp,^one hundred and fifty miles east, as the 
crow flies. Thus the line was flanked on the east by the rugged Allegheny 
country, and on the west by the mighty Mississippi. About midway between 
these ends, flowed northerly, nearly parallel, and but twelve miles apart, 
those two great navigable streams, the Cumberland and Tennessee. At the 
point where this battle line cro.ssed the Tennessee, the most westerly of 
these rivers, was erected Fort Henry, and on the Cumberland, another work 
called Fort Donelson . 

The Confederates had for supplying their line most excellent facilities. 
First, from the Atlantic coast at Charleston, S. C, ran the Charleston and 
Memphis Railroad clear across the entire country from the ocean to the 
Mississippi River. This great railroad artery, lying midway between the 
Ohio River and the Gulf of Mexico, penetrated the Allegheny Mountains at 
Chattanooga, Tennessee, about midway between the terminals. Branching 
north and south from this main stem were several railroads. Bowling Green 
being an important junction of one of them running between Memphis, Tenn., 
and Louisville, Ky. These railroads and the three rivers made the adopted 
line a mo.st ideal one in affording excellent means not only for transportation 
of supplies from the fertile South, but also for quickly concentrating armies.' 
Still strategically it was not a strong line as it could be attacked at the 
center by gunboats and troops moving up the Tennessee or Cumberland 
rivers or flanked at Columbus. 



48 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL, WAR 

Owing to repeated urgings by Grant, General Halleck, instead of wait- 
ing until February 22, the day named by President Lincoln to begin opera- 
tion, set his forces on the march. In his attack on the enemy's line, he 
determined to make use of the Tennessee River, and if his assaults on the 
center were successful, the result would be to compel the foe to withdraw 
the two wings. The Army of the Ohio, under General Buell, lay in front of 
Bowling Green, while the Army of the Mississippi, under General Pope, was 
confronting Columbus. The advance of the Union Army was begun on 
February 5 by Halleck sending General Grant in command of the Army of 
Tennessee, numbering 17,000 troops up the Tennessee River to co-operate 
with Flag-officer Foote's fleet of four iron-clad and four wooden gunboats, 
which had sailed ahead. Grant's transports, carrying his troops being 
delayed by heavy floods in the river, Foote advanced with his fleet alone to 
the attack upon Fort Henry. 

After a fierce bombardment, Foote succeeded on the 6th in driving the 
Grays, under the command of General Lloyd Tilghman, out of the stronghold, 
which a few days after was occupied by some of Grant's troops. 

The Confederate general, Albert Sidney Johnston, who had taken chief 
command of the forces at Bowling Green, fell back from this position and 
sent 8,000 men under Buckner and John B. Floyd^ who had been Secretary 
of War under Buchanan, to the aid of Fort Donelson, on the Cumberland 
River. This fort was also reinforced by 4,000 men under Gideon J. Pillow. 
Johnston also sent 14,000 men under William J. Hardee to the defense of 
Nashville. 

Grant, without stopping, promptly marched east to the attack of Fort 
Donelson, on the Cumberland River, while Foote, without delay, got his 
fleet around into the Cumberland to co-operate with the army, and, after 
two days' ferocious fighting, midst cold and stormy weather, during which 
the sick and wounded of both Blue and Gray lay suffering intensely on the 
soggy ground in a continuous downpown of cold rains, on February 11th 
that stronghold was surrendered by the Confederate commander, Buckner. 

Before surrendering, Buckner had proposed an armistice to arrange 
terms of capitulation, to which Grant replied: "No terms except uncondi- 
tional and immediate surrender can be accepted. I propose to move 
immediately upon your works." To these "ungenerous and unchivalric 
terms," as Buckner characterized them, the Confederate commander was 
compelled to yield. That same day Grant telegraphed to Halleck: "We 
have taken Fort Donelson and from 12,000 to 15,000 prisoners, including 
Generals Buckner and Bushrod R. Johnson; also about 20,000 stands of arms, 
48 pieces of artillery, 17 heavy guns, from 2,000 to 4,000 horses and large 
quantities of military stores." 

Floyd and Pillow had escaped at night on a steamboat. Over 3,000 
infantry and the greater part of the cavalry under Nathan B. Forrest 
escaped at the same time. 

Because of this sweeping victory the whole North rang with Grant's 
praises, and, recognizing in him the uncompromising spirit which was to 
win victory for the Union, the people dubbed him "Unconditional Surrender" 
Grant, the initials of the sobriquet happily corresponding with those of his 
Christian names. 

Halleck seized the victory as an occasion to demand the chief command 



THE CAMPAIGNS OP THE CIVIL. WAR 49 



in the West, over Buell as well as Grant, intending to take charge of the 
advance on Tennessee. This was refused by Lincoln, who desired Buell 
and Halleck to co-operate as equals. 

These achievements of the Army of Tennessee, and Foote's fleet, broke 
up the Confederate's first line, for by the fall of these two forts at the center, 
their right at Bowling Green was forced to retire south below Nashville, and 
their left compelled to evacuate Columbus and retire to Island Number Ten, 
another fortified position, which lay at a sharp bend in the Mississippi near 
New Madrid, some thirty-five miles south. Buell, with the Army of the 
Ohio, was thus enabled to occupy unmolested Bowling Green, while Pope, 
with the Army of the Mississippi, entered without resistance triumphantly 
into Columbus. The army stores captured at these two places were immense, 
consisting of cattle, horses and guns. 

These two conquests of Grant and Foote, the first really substantial 
successes of the Blues, produced unbounded rejoicing at the North, and served 
to unite and urge her people to the support of the conquering Americans. 
At the South, they caused some dismay, but no despondency, and only 
quickened the preparations for the impending struggle. 

The Army of the Mississippi, under Pope, promptly began a tedious 
march south, through knee-deep swamps in a malarious land along the banks 
of the Mississippi, to the attack of Island No. 10. Before his advance the 
Confederates on March 13 evacuated New Madrid. Foote, with his fleet 
going ahead, had reached Island No. 10 on March 5, and begun a murderous 
bombardment of the forts. But the brave Grays gave back hard and 
furious, compelling him to retire and await Pope's arrival. To get the 
transports, carrying the troops below the forts without running their fire, a 
canal was cut by the engineers from one arm of the river bend to the other 
across the lowlands. It was fifty feet wide, by twelve miles long, and 
completed in nineteen days. By this passage, Pope's Army safely reached 
the east side of the river, and landed below the forts. Then occurred the 
hazardous feat of running the forts by the fieet. This was done on April 4, 
by one of Foote's gunboats. The Grays, seeing that their position on 
Island No. 10 was now about to be attacked, both front and rear, quickly 
evacuated their forts, leaving behind large quantities of valuable supplies. 
Pope, rapidly pursuing the fieeing Grays, succeeded in capturing seven 
thousand before they got beyond his reach. 

Between Memphis and Island No. 10, the Confederates had erected 
another strongly fortified place on the east side of the river called Fort 
Pillow. Pope, moving south along the stream with his 20,000 troops, reached 
this fort April 14th, ready to attack, when he suddenly received orders to 
march with all speed east to the assistance of the Army of the Tennessee, 
the reason for which we will next learn. 

The Union fleet, however, after Pope's departure, assembled in the 
neighborhood of Fort Pillow and erected mortar batteries on the banks of 
the river. On May 10 the Confederates' fleet, consisting of eight gunboats, 
suddenly made a vigorous attack upon Foote's fleet and batteries. A 
desperate and bloody battle ensued, which was witnessed by crowds of people 
from the shores of the river, and within one hour the entire Confederate 
fleet was destroyed. This resulted in the evacuating of Fort Pillow on 
June 5, thus leaving the great railroad terminal of Memphis, a few miles 
south, defenseless and at the mercy of the National forces. 



50 THE CAMPAIGNS OP THE CIVIL WAR 

We have next to recount the operations of Grant in Tennessee that had 
been taking place in the meanwhile. • 

After the fall of Fort Donelson, it was supposed that the Confederates 
were concentrating at Chattanooga; consequently, Grant and Foote hastened 
in hot pursuit of the retreating Grays up the Cumberland, occupying Clarks- 
ville, Tenn., on that river. Buell also hurried forward troops under Major- 
General Nelson, and, by Grant's orders, these occupied Nashville on February 
25. On March 1, Halleck ordered Grant to proceed further into Tennessee 
on a railroad destroying expedition. Grant did not obey at once; he also 
failed to report to Halleck, who, therefore, complained to Washington that 
Grant was insubordinate, probably because of a sense of importance over 
his capture of Fort Donelson. McClellan, with Stanton's approval, authorized 
Halleck to demote Grant, keep him at Fort Henry, and give command of 
the expedition to Charles F. Smith, Grant's subordinate. This was done. 
Grant complying, but giving an explanation of his seeming insubordination, 
which was the miscarriage of Halleck's despatches. Later he asked to be 
relieved from duty, but Halleck, now in a better frame of mind, refused the 
request and reinstated him in his old command. 

The chief objective in the railroad-wrecking expedition planned by 
Halleck was Corinth, Miss., an important junction of railroad branches 
running north and south from the main line, and situated about midway 
between Chattanooga and Memphis. 

General Smith, with 30,000 troops in transports, got around into 
the Tennessee River and landed at a bluffy place called Pittsburg Landing, 
7''enn., about twenty miles north of the objective point, Corinth. It was 
learned shortly afterwards that the Grays were concentrating a large force 
at Corinth, under the command of Albert Sidney Johnston, who had with 
him Generals Beauregard, Van Dorn, Price and Bragg. Smith selected 
Pittsburg Landing for organizing his camps, because it consisted of a 
heavily wooded plateau on the high bluff of the river. On the right, to 
the west, it was bounded by a "powerful stream," called Owl Creek, afford- 
ing good protection to that flank. His left was in like manner guarded by 
another stream named Lick Creek. Along the greater part of his left front, 
there were deep rugged ravines, and finally to his rear, flowed the Tennessee. 
After establishing this position. General Smith was taken ill and died subse- 
quently on April 25. It had been his intention to use Pittsburg Landing 
as the base for offensive operations. He did not know that the Confederate 
Commander was at the time preparing to attack, and consequently he 
failed to erect defensive works, which neglect, it will be seen, lead to disaster. 
When Smith was taken ill, General Grant was recalled to the command of 
the Army of the Tennessee, on March 13. Buell, with the Army of the Ohio, 
was still at Bowling Green, about 100 miles east. One division of Grant's army, 
under Lew Wallace, was a day's march to the northwest of the Landing. 
Such was the disposition of the Union forces on the morning of April 5 
when without a note of warning, the whole Confederate force, under John- 
ston, suddenly made a brilliant and desperate attack along the entire Union 
front. This brought about the memorable battle of Shiloh, named after a 
miserable log cabin meeting house that stood by the road leading south to 
Corinth and just in front of General W. T. Sherman's division on the right 
of Grant's line. 



THE CAMPAIGNS OP THE CIVIL WAR &1 



The gallant Grays made impetuous charge after charge, hammering the 
Union lines, which, through yielding at first, foot by foot, finally broke in 
disorder on the left, and went rushing to the Landing at the rear. Sherman, 
on the right, however, gave the Grays their toughest task, but alone and 
unsupported, by the rout of the left, he, too, was forced back. Late in the 
afternoon, the final and most vicious charge by the Grays was sternly 
repulsed during which their commander, Johnston, was slain. Nightfall 
found the Grays, after twelve hours of bloody fighting-, in full possession of 
all the camps and guns of the Blues. Grant's army was huddled up near 
the landing on the Tennessee River. 

During the night Grant was busy reorganizing his defeated army, with 
the intention of taking the offensive early the next morning. In this he was 
greatly assisted by the arrival of Lew Wallace's division and also by General 
Buell, who came during the night personally with 20,000 men of the Army 
of the Ohio. 

Early Monday morning the battle reopened with fierce fighting on both 
sides. The death of Johnston threw the command of the Confederates upon 
Beauregard, who, although sick, decided to continue the attack. The fighting 
was savage and furious. Slowly but surely, however, the Blues kept gaining 
ground, especially the division on the right under W. T. Sherman, for which 
General Grant, in his report of the battle, gave him the highest credit. It 
was not until late in the afternoon that the Blues got the Grays on the run 
and regained their camps and guns lost the day previous. So ended that 
much misunderstood battle of "Shiloh" or "Pittsburg Landing," which broke 
up the Grays' second line, and where some 24,000 human beings of the 
Blue and Gray were either killed or wounded. Grant in his memoirs, in 
speaking of the appearance of the battlefield, says: "I saw an open field 
in our possession on the second day over which the Confederates had made 
repeated charges the day before, so covered with dead that it would have 
been possible to walk across the clearing in any direction stepping on dead 
bodies, without a foot touching the ground. At one part of the field, the 
Blue and Gray mingled about equal, but in the remainder, nearly all were 
Gray." 

Grant, on the day before the battle, had his leg injured by the 
stumbling of his horse over a sunken log, and in the first day's fight, the 
hilt of his sword was struck by a bullet. Sherman was shot in the hand 
and shoulder, and through his hat; the wounds, however, being slight. 
General Benjamin M. Prentiss, with over 2,000 Blues, was captured by 
reason of not understanding an order to fall back on the first day. 

The people at the North, on receiving the news of Grant's disaster of 
Sunday, were thrown into gloom. "Whipped at Bull Run, and now again 
at Shiloh!" yelled the yellow journals. Even after the glorious victory of 
Monday, Grant was denounced, and all the credit which was surely due him 
was heaped upon Buell, who was called "The Savior of the Army." These 
journals reported Grant as drunk, and wrote other degrading things about 
him. 

Shiloh was the first real battle in the "open" and probably the fiercest 
of the war between the opposing foes. Both armies were composed of half- 
drilled and inexperienced troops, nearly all of which never saw warfare 
before. The Confederate prisoners presented a most woe-begone appearance. 



52 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL. WAR 

a large number of them being without uniforms, in marked contrast with the 
fairly well-equipped National troops. 

A few days after the battle and while General Sherman's division was 
pursuing the Grays, General Halleck arrived from St. Louis and assumed 
command in person, reducing General Grant and practically ignoring him. 
This so chagrined Grant that he determined to resign, but Sherman pre- 
vailed upon him to wait a while — which was well for the Blues. 

We have now to relate one of the most audacious and dashing affairs 
of the Campaign. When Buell left Bowling Green to join Grant at Shiloh, 
he sent General Ormsby M. Mitchel with a small force to destroy as much 
as possible of the Charleston and Memphis Railroad. Mitchel, in a dashing 
manner, ripped up over one hundred miles of railroad and its branches 
within a week. Finally he sent out a secret expedition of twenty-two men 
to continue the depredations. This squad got within fifteen miles of 
Chattanooga, burning cars, tearing up tracks, breaking down telegraph 
lines, but being pui'sued, were forced to leave their locomotives and flee to 
the mountains, where they were hunted down and about half of them 
caught and hanged. 

The Confederate Government now, because of tardy volunteering, was 
compelled to pass a conscription act, pressing into the army every white male 
l^etween the ages of eighteen and thirty-five years. Still, conscripts make 
good fighters; they are not unwilling soldiers, nor are they devoid of 
patriotism; they simply represent a class who, while acknowledging duty, 
put it off for a while, "letting the other fellow go first." 

Halleck, with the combined Armies of the Mississippi, Ohio and 
Tennessee, now numbering some 120,000 troops, moved slowly and cautiously 
south, entrenching at every step, toward Corinth, which, although but 
twenty-two miles away, he did not reach until May 30, and then found it 
evacuated, with all its valuable military store destroyed. The Grays had 
retired south to form their third line, along the railroad running east from 
Vicksburg on the Mississippi River through Jackson, Meridian and Selma, 
in Mississippi. Halleck fortified Corinth and stretched the Army of the 
Tennessee along the Charleston and Memphis Railroad. Sherman's division 
was sent to occupy the terminal city of Memphis, while Buell's Army of the 
Ohio advanced slowly east along the railroad towards Chattanooga. 

During June, Halleck was called to Washington and made Commander- 
in-Chief, after the disaster to McClellan's Army of the Potomac, of which 
we are to learn. General Grant then got back his old command. 

The Grays in front of Corinth, were under the command of Van Dorn 
and Price; Beauregard having retired. 

Near Chattanooga and opposing Buell the Grays were under General 
Bragg. Such were the dispositions of the fighting lines west of the Allegheny 
Mountains in the summer, during which only small unimportant engage- 
ments took place between the opposing forces, in which, however, many acts 
of courage and dash were exhibited by both, and while these encounters 
accomplished nothing of importance to. the main issue, they served, never- 
theless, to give the troops experience and a knowledge of the country. 
After the battle of Pea Ridge, on March 8, General Curtis with 10,000 
joined Halleck, who when at Corinth is reported to have had 275,000 
troops under his command. Theordore A. Dodge, the historian, states that 



THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 53 

the Grays under Beauregard had south of Corinth 112,000; 53,000 for duty; 
11,000 in East Tennessee at Knoxville; 10,000 in Jackson, Miss. 

The Union armies, stretched for a great distance along the Charleston 
and Memphis Railroad, were in position to be perilously attacked by the 
enemy, and this actually happened, for General Bragg made a sortie north 
from Chattanooga with 50,000 Grays, having the intention of occupying 
Louisville, Kentucky. This movement of Bragg compelled Buell to gather 
in his scattered command and fall back, as Louisville, 300 miles north, was 
his base of supplies. He reached that city on September 25, ahead of the 
Grays. Bragg gobbled up an immense quantity of stores and quickly re- 
treated south. 

In the meantime, Van Dorn and Price advanced against Grant, the 
first engagement taking place at luka, just southeast of Corinth, on 
September 13. In this engagement the Blues, under the command of 
General Rosecrans, were beaten back, by reason of that officer not complying 
with Grant's orders. 

About September 23, Grant leaving Rosecrans strongly entrenched with 
23,000 men at Corinth, planned an attack with the remainder of his force 
on the enemy near Jackson, Mississippi, an important railroad junction a 
short distance east of that great stronghold, guarding the Mississippi River, 
called Vicksburg. Grant's force consisted of 7,000 under Sherman at 
Memphis, Tenn. ; 12,000 under General Edward D. C. Ord at Bolivar, Miss., and 
6,000 at Jackson, Miss. Van Dorn and Price chose, however, to pass Grant 
and attack Corinth, which they did on October 3, when, after one of the 
fiercest assaults ever made by the Gallant Grays, their loss being 10,000 
out of 40,000, they were forced to abandon their bold attempt. Had Rose- 
crans quickly followed up the retreating enemy, instead of remaining quietly 
in the forts, the army of the Gray would have no doubt been in sad 
plight. 

Going back to Bragg's sortie into Kentucky, where we left him re- 
treating south, Buell in pursuit, caught up to him October 8, at a town 
called Perryville, about inidway between Louisville and Bowling Green. 
Here a very sanguinary engagement occurred, but the fighting was cut 
short by Bragg stealing away during the night, leaving behind his dead and 
wounded, and passing through the Allegheny Mountains at Cumberland 
Gap, which important thoroughfare had been evacuated by the Union 
troops at the time of the Grays' advance. Bragg reached Chattanooga 
with a train of wagons forty miles long loaded with spoils as the result of 
his skillful sortie. The Government at Richmond, not .satisfied with the 
results, ordered him again north on another raid. 

Halleck had intended that Buell should advance against the enemy 
in East Tennessee, but Buell instead concentrated against Nashville, where- 
upon on October 3 he was removed and General Rosecrans placed in 
command of the Army of the Ohio, then called the 14th Army Corps. 
This corps, with General Philip H. Sheridan's and other divisions from the 
Army of the Tennessee, together with new reinforcements from the North, 
now numbered about 100,000 men. 

Bragg, on his second advance north, reached Murfreesborough, a little 
south of Nashville, about Christmas, where Rosecrans was supposed to 
be camped in winter quarters. Rosecrans sallied forth to the attack of 
Bragg with 43,000 against the latter's 62,000. 



54 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL, WAR 

It was December 29, when these two forces gripped. The Con- 
federates attaining the initiative, drove two tlivisions of the Blues' right, 
under Johnson and Davis, off the field. Sheridan's division was 
assaulted next, and being unsupported on the right, was dangerously hard 
pressed by a furious onslaught of the Grays. By skillful maneuvering and 
concentrating the artillery at the apex of his wedge-shaped formation, not 
only did he check the assault, but also in turn, charged and drove the Grays 
back into their entrenchments. Unfortunately his ammunition train had 
been captured early in the day, and the cartridge boxes of his troops were 
empty, which compelled him to retire. This he dexterously did by placing 
his reserves in front with bayonets fixed, and thus brought his division 
unconquered from the field. Rosecrans then formed a new line, massing 
his artillery on a knoll in front of which was an open plain. Several 
times the gallant Grays charged under John P. McCown and Clebourne, 
over the clearing against the Blues' belching artillery, and in the end after 
suffering horrible slaughter, the charging parties were practically destroyed. 
Still undaunted, the Grays with 7,000 fresh troops made two other charges 
under the leadership of General John C. Breckinridge, but these were like- 
wise repulsed. The last charge was made on New Year's day, 1863. The 
next day, Bragg made. still another desperate attempt to break Rosencrans' 
line, but failed again, and then retreated to Talahoma through the Cum- 
berland Gap. 

These efforts to get their line back towards the Ohio River cost the 
gallant Grays dearly, for the number of the killed and wounded was 14,000; 
while that of the Blues was 8,000. We have to pause in pity for those 
residents of Kentucky and Tennessee, over whose lands these sanguinary 
battles and numerous, almost daily skirmishes took place. These farmers 
and planters who were harassed and despoiled, first by one army and then 
by the other, entering and re-entering on their farms. This, with the 
dangerous and pitiful plight of the unprotected women and children during 
the engagements between the remorseless armies, affords material for 
compassionate reflections. While individual plundering was against orders, 
yet the commanders could, if they found it necessary, by the laws of war, 
seize the products of the farms, not only for the use of their own armies, 
but also to prevent the same from falling into the hands of their enemies 
for their sustenance. General Grant regarded the slaves in general as 
personal property, and as such entitled to protection, but those which were 
supporting the enemy's troops he treated as contrabands of war. 

During the campaigns, orders from the Government prevented expulsion 
of negroes from the protection of the army, when they came in voluntarily. 
Thousands of all ages and of both sexes, gathered within the lines of the 
Union Army to such an extent as seriously to interfere with military 
movements. The problem of their disposal was finally settled by the 
establishment of a "Freedmen's Bureau," a department for the care, employ- 
ment and enlistment of the fugitive slaves. Another order of the Union 
Government was to gather up all the cotton possible, even to buy it paying 
for the same in gold. The effect of this was to place large amounts of 
money in the hands of the enemy, greatly impairing the morale of the 
troops during their operations of accumulating the cotton. Then again, 
the getting within the lines by the horde of dealers and traders in the 
staple permitted spying. 



THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 



Grant in his memoirs, speaking of affairs at the time, says: "I was mucli 
concerned because my first duty after holding the territory acquired within 
my command, was to prevent further reinforcing of Bragg in middle 
Tennessee. Already the Army of Northern Virginia, under Lee, had 
defeated the army, under Pope, and was invading Maryland." (To under- 
stand this, as will be related later on. Pope had been sent from the West 
to take command of an auxiliary army, formed near the old battlefield of 
Bull Run.) "In the center. General Buell was on his way to Louisville, and 
Bragg marching parallel to him with a large force for the Ohio River. I 
had been constantly called upon to reinforce Buell, until at this time, my 
entire force numbered less than 50,000 men of arms. If I, too, should be 
driven back, the Ohio River would becom^e the line dividing the belligerents 
west of the Alleghenies, while at the east, the line was already further north 
than when hostilities commenced at the opening of the war — to say at the 
end of the second year of the war the line dividing the contestants at the 
east was pushing north of Maryland, a State that had not seceded, and at 
the west beyond Kentucky, and this State which had always been loyal, 
would have been discouraging indeed. As it was, many loyal people 
despaired in the fall of 18 62 of ever saving the Union. The Administra- 
tion at Washington was much concerned for the safety of the cause it 
held so dear." 

The successes of Pope with the Army of the Mississippi and the fleet 
under Foote, in the early Spring, opened the great water highway south 
to Memphis. As will be recounted, Farragut had captured New Orleans 
about May 1, and had pushed up the Mississippi. This left with the Con- 
federates but two other fortified places obstructing the river. Vicksburg 
and Port Hudson. Along the stretch of the river, between these two places, 
the Confederates maintained communications with the fertile lands west of 
the Mississippi River, in Louisiana, Arkansas and Texas, from which they 
obtained vast supplies of stores for their armies both in the East and West. 
Foreign supplies, brought by blockade-runners to Texas, reached the fighting 
lines through this same line of communication. It was, therefore, of utmost 
importance to the Union side to capture these two remaining strongholds. 

' >n November 12, 1862, command was given Grant of all the troops 
within his department, and he was ordered to conduct operations against 
Vicksburg, and the Grays who intervened in command of John C. Pemberton 
who had succeeded Van Dorn. Grant advanced with 30,000 south through 
the tangled wilderness of the Tallahatchie region against Pemberton, while 
Sherman, then at Memphis, proceeded by transportation down the river to 
attack Vicksburg, Grant's aim lieing to endeavor so to engage Pemberton 
as to prevent him strengthening the stronghold. Grant's progress with his 
long trains, in which he was obliged to carry all his supplies through the 
swampy wilderness, was painfully slow. His base of supplies was at Holly 
Springs, Miss. This on the 20th of December was, unfortunately for Grant's 
plan, captured by a small force under Van Dorn and Forrest. 

Grant had warned Colonel Murphy, who was in command of Holly 
Spring, of the intended attack, but the post was surrendered without a shot 
being fired. Grant immediately sent cavalry to drive Van Dorn's menacing 
men from his rear, and in retaliation he ordered the gathering of forage and 
foodstuff? from a region fifteen miles in length east and west, allowing only 



P6 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 

two months' supplies for families of those despoiled. The stores thus col- 
lected more than compensated his loss at Holly Springs. 

This loss of his base forced Grant to change his plan. Moving north- 
westerly to Memphis, he intended to join Sherman in the course down the 
river. But Sherman had already left, and, not knowing of the disaster 
at Holly Springs nor of Grant's change of plan, had landed his troops on 
either side of the river at Milliken Bend, just above Vicksburg. The clay 
bluffs of this region are about two hundred feet high, and in order to 
protect the surrounding flat land from flooding at high water, levees or 
embankments ten feet high, had been erected along the banks of the river 
and the tributary bayous. Behind these levees ran roads which the enemy 
could use without being seen. 

On December 29, Sherman, with part of his force, made a desperate 
attack on the bluffs. The charging parties on reaching the foot of them 
were hurled back by the Grays on the heights keeping up a murderous 
perpendicular fire down on the heads of the invaders. The terrible struggle 
lasted all day, and many of the Blues were compelled to dig holes in the 
banks to escape the destructive fire of the Grays on top of the cliff. Under 
the darkness of the night the Blues then retired, Sherman having found 
that his forces were not powerful enough to cope with these fortified bluffs. 
Besides this, his supply boats were being constantly menaced and often 
captured or destroyed by the enemy's gunboats coming into the Mississippi 
from the Arkansas River, which joined it a little north of his position. 
The base of these gunboats was some forty miles up the Arkansas at 
Arkansas Post, called by the Confederates Fort Hindman. Sherman pre- 
pared an expedition against this place, but, before he led it, he was superseded 
by orders from Washington bv General John A. McClernand. 

It was obvious that before any movement could be successfully main- 
tained at Vicksburg by the river, that this fort at the rear must be 
destroyed. This McClernand, with Sherman as second in command, did with 
the co-operation of the navy during the very cold weather. It surrendered 
with 5,000 men on January 10, 1863. After this Grant took personal com- 
mand. Ordering McClernand's division, then in Arkansas, to Milliken Bend, 
thus concentrating his scattered forces, he began reorganizing his troops 
for the capture of Vicksburg. 

One of the causes of this failure against Vicksburg was the working of 
the cross-purpose, brought about by Halleck and Grant planning one 
campaign while Secretary Stanton and General McClernand were, as Dodge 
puts it, secretly conferring about another. The President had been influenced 
by political considerations to give Sherman's command to McClernand, who 
was a Democrat and former member of Congress. Grant was incensed 
that a civilian soldier had been forced upon taking the place of his 
favorite subordinate, Sherman, a West Point graduate, and he spoke of 
the expedition against Arkansas Post in terms that would have been harsh 
if it had ended in failure instead of the brilliant success that really resulted. 
McClernand replied with natural indignation, in an insubordinate tone. 
Halleck, who had already had a controversy with the independent 
McClernand, allowed Grant to have his way, and McClernand was shortly 
transferred, Sherman resuming his old command. 

The Confederate Government about this time, in order to oppose an able 
general to Grant, placed Joseph E. Johnston in command of all Confederate 
forces between the AUeghenies and the Mississippi River. 



THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 



CHAPTER VI. 

Gulf Campaign of 1862. 



Capture of New Orleans by Farragut — Capture of Baton Rouge — 
Attempts on Vicksburg — Fight With the Confederate Ram A)-kansas — • 
Battle of Baton Rouge — The Fight at Thibodeaux — Butler's Administration 
of New Orleans. 

Before recounting the important operations which had been taking 
place in Virginia and east of the Alleghenies we will finish up the campaign 
of the year 18 62 that occurred in the Mississippi Valley. 

Captain David G. Farragut with his fleet of seventeen gunboats and 
twenty-one bombboats arrived at the delta of the mighty Mississippi River 
the latter part of February, 18 62. About the same time General Benjamin 
F. Butler embarked from Fortress Monroe, Virginia, with 13,000 troops to 
co-operate with him in the capture of New Orleans. 

Farragut was a Southerner by birth who severed, no doubt with many a 
heartache, ties of family, home and his native State of Tennessee to remain 
with the United States Navy in which he had been an officer. 

For thirty miles above the delta the tortuous Mississippi flows through 
a region of vast swamps covered densely by great trees each wierdly draped 
with a funereal veil of Spanish moss, and by a jungle of undergrowth inter- 
woven by thick entangling vines through which roam at will great alligators. 
These natural barriers formed an impregnable guard by land to the 
approaches of the Gulf metropolis of New Orleans some ninety miles above. 

A few miles above the delta, admist thsse gloomy surroundings, stood 
two old fortifications, Fort Jackson on the left bank of the river, and, less 
than half a mile further up, Fort Philip on the right, with a width of river 
about a half mile. "A vessel," said Draper, "attempting to pass this gauntlet 
would be under fire while sailing a distance of four miles." From land 
attack these forts, standing amidst the mire and forests were inaccessible to 
an enemy's troops. Their subjection therefore was purely a naval problem. 
This Fa'-ragut assayed to solve, and he planned at all hazards to force 
fourteen of his gunboats through the passage between the forts. 

Just below the forts the Grays had stretched across the whole width of 
the river a massive iron chain, supported by hulks hidden by a covering 
of heavy brush; this obstruction; however, the Union sailors during the 
darkness gallantly cut asunder in spite of the hot fire of the Grays' sharp- 
shooters. 

Behind this barrier lay the Confederate fleet of twelve gunboats, includ- 
ing two iron clad rams, the Louisiana and Manassas, besides many fire rafts. 

On the 18th of April, Porter, with his twenty-one bombboats, each manned 
with thirteen inch mortar, commenced from below a terrific bombardment of 
Fort Jackson. For six consecutive days and nights a continuous hail of 
iron was poured into the Grays' works, but, as had been anticipated by 
Farragut, this assault produced little effect. Leaving Commander David D. 
Porter with his flotilla below, Farragut with fourteen vessels of his fleet 
began the attempt to run the forts at 3:30 o'clock a. m., April 24. 

Reaching abreast of Fort Jackson the gunners of the fleet poured 



58 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL, WAR 

against the fort broadside after broadside of shot and shell with telling 
effect. Just then a fire raft lighting up the weird scenery came rushing 
down with the swift current and struck the Hartford, (Farragut's flagship), 
setting her ablaze, while at the same moment she was receiving a terrific 
fire from the Grays' fleet above, to which, nevertheless, she kept replying. 
Farragut, running the Hartford aground, fortunately succeeded in extinguish- 
ing the flames, then, backing off, he plunged his ship at one of the enemy's 
fleet and sank it. 

Having passed the first fort admist the blaze of burning ships, the 
Hartford plowed dauntlessly onward to the task of passing Fort Philip. 
Here occurred a repetition of the turmoil of flash and fire from the deadly 
guns of the fort and ships that was experienced before at Fort Jackson. 
After hammering the fort with well-aimed broadsides of grape and canister, 
he forced the exhausted garrison, within thirty minutes, to abandon their 
guns. 

Beset by perils on every hand from sunken ships and blazing fire rafts, 
Farragut's fleet proceeded steadily up the river, giving and taking at short 
range the fire of the opposing gunboats, until he had finally overcome or 
destroyed nearly all of them. When the sun rose, the Union fleet, with 
the exception of four vessels, three which had put back crippled, and a 
fourth which had sunk, was well above the forts. 

Porter, who, with his bombboats, had remained below, early in the 
morning demanded the surrender of Fort Jackson, but its commander refused 
to yield, whereupon the garrison of brave Grays, who had so gallantly 
stood by their guns during the terrible ordeal at night, mutinied and com- 
pelled their commander to hoist the white flag. 

In the afternoon Farragut anchored off New Orleans, compelling the 
small force of only 2,000 Grays under command of Mansfield Lovell to 
evacuate the city, and thus he secured to the Nation the first and wealthiest 
city of the seceded States, the sixth in rank in the Union, and in foreign 
trade next to New York, with a population of over 140,000 souls. 

On Farragut's requesting the Mayor to haul down the Confederate flag 
and to raise instead the "Stars and Stripes," he received a refusal framed In 
spread-eagle rhetoric. Ignoring this political bambast, he sent some mariners 
ashore who raised the Union standard over the public buildings. A citizen 
with more zeal than discretion hauled down one of these Union flags for 
which impetuous act he was later on tried, condemned and shot by order 
of General Butler. This action brought from President Davis a proclama- 
tion denouncing Butler as a felon. 

Butler with his troops entered New Orleans May first unmolested, and 
proceeded to organize the police and city government for the protection of 
life and property, and for the care of the city's health enforced strict sanitary 
requirements. His sway at New Orleans, nevertheless, was very unpopular, 
since, being a rank abolitionist, he adopted a most drastic and distasteful 
policy regarding the negro. 

Farragut's fleet accompanied by some eleven hundred troops under 
command of General Thomas Williams, an able officer of the regular army, 
proceeded at once up the Mississippi River, under the blazing rays of a 
tropical sun, to the capture of Baton Rouge, the State capital, which yielded 



THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 59 

with its population of seven thousand on May 13. The City of Natchez in 
the State of Mississippi was next subdued without much resistance. 

The great stronghold, Vicksburg, was reached by the fleet and troops of 
General Williams on May 18. A day or two before this a detachment of 
Blues on going ashore at Warantown ten miles below Vicksburg for wood, 
encountered a force of Grays and in the skirmish which ensued, there 
occurred the spilling of the first blood in the Army of the Gulf through 
the wounding of Sergeant-Major N. H. Chittenden and Private E. C. Perry, 
of the Fourth Wisconsin Regiment. 

The sailors aboard the fleet, like the soldiers on the transports, suffered 
torture from the miasmatic climate and the burning rays of a tropical sun. 
Below the humid air was stifling, while on deck the sun-glare was still more 
unbearable. It was an arduous task for those inhabitants of a temperate 
zone, without time even to get acclimated to these enervating tropical 
environments to bring out the full scope of nervous energy required of 
them. 

It had been but a short time before Farragut reached Vicksburg that 
General Beauregard began fortifying that important commanding place on 
the Mississippi River. 

Irwin in his history of the Nineteenth Army Corps says: "The town 
stands at an abrupt bend of the river where within ten miles the winding 
river doubles upon itself, forming on the low ground opposite a long flnger 
of land, barely three-quarters of a mile wide. Opposite the extreme end of 
this peninsula known as De Soto, the bluff reaches the highest point attained 
along the whole course of the river, the crest standing about 250 feet above 
the mean stage of water. Sloping gradually toward the river the bluff 
follows it with diminishing altitude for two miles. Below the town the 
bluffs draw away from the river, until about four miles beyond the bend, 
their height diminish to about 150 feet." 

Farragut found that his guns could not be elevated sufficiently to fire 
upon the fortifications stationed on the high bluffs, and, even if the national 
forces had succeeded in capturing the citadel, the small command of 
General Williams would not have been able to hold it. However, Farragut 
opened fire upon the lower batteries for a few hours, after which the Blues 
retired down the river; while passing Grand Gulf the transports were fired 
on, and a small affair took place in which the Grays were driven back into 
the country. 

On May 29, the Blues were back in Baton Rouge, where orders were 
received from Washington to capture Vicksburg at once. Farragut, being 
reinforced by Porter's mortar flotilla, and Williams command being raised 
to three thousand, the second advance was made, the transports and fleets 
reaching Vicksburg June 25. 

In order to get the transports with troops and munitions to the north 
of Vicksburg without running the batteries, Williams began the cutting of 
a canal across the neck of land directly west of the forts. With twelve 
hundred negroes the work was carried on day and night, so that by July 
4 a ditch nearly two miles long, thirteen feet wide and eighteen feet deep, 
was completed, but unfortunately a storm then occurred, during which 
the clay banks gave way, causing the project to be abandoned. 

In the meantime; the fleet advanced to the attack alone. 



60 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 

Farragut succeeded with some of his vessels in running the forts the 
night of June 28, while Porter's flotilla kept up an incessant bombardment 
from below. Continuing up the river, Farragut joined the Union fleet 
under Charles Henry Davis on July 1, when he received an amazing order 
from Washington to send Porter and the bombboats to Hampton Road, 
Virginia. Farragut then applied to General Halleck, who was at Corinth, 
for troops to assist Williams in the land assaults on Vicksburg, but Halleck, 
replied: "I cannot; am sending reinforcements to Curtis in Arkansas and 
Buell in Tennessee, besides the President wants me to send seventy-flve 
thousand troops to help the Army on the Potomac in Virginia." The 
reason for this latter request we will discover when we review the dis- 
astrous campaign of McClellan before Richmond, which had occurred in the 
meantime. 

While Farragut was above Vicksburg in company with Commodore 
Davis, he learned of the Grays constructing a very formidable ironclad ram 
named the Arkansas, up the Yazoo River. He thereupon sent the gun- 
boats Crandolet and Tyler with his ram Queen o/ the West upon an expedition 
up the Yazoo to look the new monster over. These ships met the enemy's 
fleet so suddenly that neither squadron had steam up. Still, they com- 
menced firing upon each other. In the engagement the Arkansas was 
seriously injured, but kept up the fight, and, running the gauntlet of the 
Union fleet, giving and taking blow upon blow at short range, finally 
succeeded in getting to safety under the guns at Vick.sburg. Farragut's 
whole fleet now ran the batteries of Vicksburg a second time on his way 
south, and in passing the Arkansas gave her a thrashing, which, however, 
made little effect upon the heavy iron mail. 

Convoyed by the fleet, Williams' troops in transports were landed once 
again at Baton Rouge. The Blues were but a short time at this State 
capital when the Grays determined to act on the aggressive. General 
Breckinridge with four thousand troops, accompanied by the great iron- 
clad Arkansas, taking advantage of Farragut's absence, whose fleet was 
then engaged in the capture of Corpus Christi, Texas, flercely attacked 
Williams during a fog, but met with a severe repulse. The Arkansas, 
getting some injury to her machinery, was compelled to run aground and 
was finally blown up by her commander. Poor Williams was killed leading 
a charge — a severe loss to the Blues, who at that time had too many 
lawyers and political generals among the commanders, and too few scien- 
tifically educated soldiers. 

The Grays suffered in this respect to some extent, as for instance in 
the case of their Secretary of War, Judah P. Benjamin, who knew little 
or nothing of military affairs, yet injudiciously interfered with Stonewall 
Jackson in the Shenandoah Valley campaign, thereby nearly causing the 
loss to the Confederate cause of that gallant and brave strategist, since it 
was only General Johnston's entreaties that prevailed upon Jackson to 
yield in his determination of leaving the army and returning to his former 
professorship at the Virginia Military Institute. This also reminds us of 
the like case of General Grant the day after the battle of Shiloh, and makes 
one feel like stopping to speculate upon what the probable outcome might 
have been had these two great generals of the Gray ^and the Blue retired 
as they strongly contemplated doing. 



THE CAMPAIGNS OP THE CIVIL WAR Cjl 



As the Grays were gathering in considerable force under General 
"Dick" Taylor with the intention of retaking New Orleans, the Union 
troops at Baton Rouge, now under General Halbert Eleazer Paine, who 
succeeded Williams, were concentrated at Carrolton, a suburb of the 
metropolis. The commander of the Grays, Richard Taylor, was a relative 
by marriage to the President of the Confederacy, Jefferson Davis. With 
skill and energy he organized an army for the defense of the "Teche" and 
"La Fourche," those fertile regions of southwestern Louisiana lying between 
the great Mississippi and Atchafolaya rivers. "All this portion is low and 
flat, and intercepted by numerous bayous of which the Teche and La 
Fourche are typical. The streams, or bayous as they are called, are 
navigable for light draft vessels, and along their banks run narrow roads, 
while elsewhere there is hardly a spot of dry land to place one's foot on." 
As Irwin says: "Besides, the land is heavily wooded and crossed by numerous 
narrow irrigation ditches of considerable depth. The country thus affords 
defensive positions at once more stronger and more numerous than to be 
found in most flat regions. Small bodies of troops familiar with the 
topography have also the further advantage that there are points from 
which their position and number cannot be easily made out." 

The Campaign of 1862 here consisted in the Blues and Grays chasing 
each other up and down these narrow bayou roads, the advantage being 
first with the one and then with the other. 

About October, when the Grays were getting uncomfortably near New 
Orleans, Butler sent an expedition consisting of four light-draft gunboats 
and a brigade under General Godfrey Weitsel up the Mississippi River to 
Donalsonville, which lies at the mouth of the bayou La Fourche. Un- 
molested this force got as far inland as Thibodeaux, when, reaching the 
awaiting Grays fourteen hundred strong under General Alfred Moulton in 
a strong defensive position, it gave battle and was fortunate enough to 
drive the Grays out of their entrenchments. In his retreat Moulton ordered 
the destruction of the only railroad in that section, the New Orleans and 
Opolousas, which connected Berwick Bay in West Louisiana with New 
Orleans. Had it not been for a heavy storm, which delayed Franklin 
Buchanan's co-operating fleet of gunboats, it certainly would have gone 
hard with the Grays. As it was the Blues captured the Confederate 
gunboat Seger ; then, ascending the Teche some fourteen miles above 
Brashear City, they came in touch again with Moulton and another gunboat, 
when a small engagement took place. While General Weitzel was 
maneuvering on the Teche, General Thomas with his brigade was sent to 
restore the New Orleans and Opolousas Railroad. This closed the cam- 
paigning of the Army of the Gulf for the year 1862. 

Through the unequaled heroism of the Navy, the Blues had gained for 
the Union the great metropolis of New Orleans, which was a very severe 
loss to the South, as the inhabitants almost to a man were devout seces- 
sionists. Strong in the faith that their cause was just, they now squirmed 
under the restraint of a conquering foe from sending succor to their 
numerous sons, even then marching and fighting under Lee, Johnston, 
Price and other generals in Virginia and elsewhere. 

These people were never conquered; they never failed to give vent 
to their convictions whenever they dared. The women especially showed 



62 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 

their loyalty to the Southern cause in many ways, crossing a street to avoid 
passing under the National flag, and ostentatiously drawing in their flowing 
skirts when passing Union soldiers in the streets. For such acts Butler 
very ungallantly reprimanded them in a scandalous and certainly ungentle- 
manly official order. In what striking contrast was the humane and 
soldierly action of Stonewall Jackson in the Barbara Frietchie episode in 
Frederick, Maryland, who when the passing Grays threatened to tear down 
the Union banner flying over her house, ordered his furious command to 
march on and leave the patriotic old lady alone. 

While the main object of the Blues, that of opening the Mississippi 
River to the commerce of the world, had failed, they had, however, suc- 
ceeded in reducing the Grays' commanding points to two — Vicksburg and 
Port Hudson. 



THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 63 

CHAPTER VII. 

Eastern Campaigns of 1862. 

Lincoln's War Order — McClellan's Advance on Richmond — Fair Oaks — 
The Seven Days' Battle — Malvern Hill — The Shenandoah Campaign — Cedar 
Run — Second Battle of Bull Run — Lee's Sortie Into Maryland — Antietam — 
Burnside Replaces McClellan — The Emancipation Proclamation — Fredericks- 
burg. 

On March 8, 1862, the day of the Union disaster preceding the triumph of 
the Monitor over the Merrimac, President Lincoln issued a war order which 
divided that part of the Army of the Potomac intended to advance upon 
Richmond into four corps commanded respectively by Major-General Irvin 
McDowell and Brigadier-Generals E. V. Sumner, S. P. Heintzelman, and 
E. D. Keyes, and provided that a reserve be left for the defense of Wash- 
ington under Brigadier-General James S. Wadsworth. He also ordered the 
formation of a fifth corps from the troops of Brigadier-General James 
Shields and Major-General Nathaniel P. Banks in the Shenandoah Valley, 
and placed Banks in command of it. 

On March 11, by another order, the President relieved McClellan from 
chief command of all the armies, retaining him as the head of the Army 
of the Potomac. This was done to enable him to devote his sole attention 
to the proposed campaign of the Army of the Potomac on Richmond, 
against the delay in the beginning which the President, the press and the 
whole North were bitterly complaining. 

The long protracted advance of General McClellan upon Richmond 
finally began March 13, 1862, over a month after the capture of Forts Henry 
and Donelson by Grant, and a few weeks before the great battle of Shiloh, 
Tennessee. 

In the course of thirty-seven days the grand Army of the Potomac, 
numbering one hundred and twe«ty-two thousand splendidly equipped 
troops, was transported from Washington to Fortress Monroe, Virginia. 
Another six weeks was consumed by McClellan in organizing his vast army 
and making preparations in the way of erecting heavy batteries for the 
siege of Yorktown, behind the entrenchments of which the Grays, only 
eight thousand strong, under John B. Magruder, for a while watched these 
maneuvers, and then quietly slipped off west to Williamsburg on the James 
River, where they were joined by General James Longstreet's Corps. Mc- 
Clellan ordered one division under General Joseph Hooker to follow the 
retiring Magruder which he promptly did, and meeting the Grays at 
Williamsburg the first engagement took place that lasted nine hours, result- 
ing in the Blues being badly repulsed by overwhelming numbers. General 
Hooker laid the blame of the defeat upon McClellan for not supporting his 
advance, the General-in-Chief with one hundred thousand troops standing 
idly in the rear during the entire battle. 

It was not until May 8 that the grand march of fitfy miles "On to 
Richmond" began. This movement by the Blues compelled the Grays to 
evacuate Norfolk and its Navy-yard on the south bank of the James, which 
was promptly occupied by General John E. Wool's forces. 



64 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 

McClellan established an excellent base of supplies to his north at 
White House on the York River, where supplies and troops could be brought 
by vessels to West Point and thence by the Richmond and York Railroad to 
his army. 

By May 22 the Union Army reached unmolested Bottom Ridge on the 
Chickahominy River within ten miles of Richinond. Two days later 
General Fitz-John Porter with a small force was advanced as far north as 
Hanover Courthouse in order to open the way for McDowell, who was 
supposed to be moving south from Fredericksburg. 

Porter was attacked when he reached the north side of the South Anna 
River, but he repulsed the enemy. Then, getting orders from Washington 
to return to McClellan, he re-crossed the South Anna, burning the bridges 
behind him, and retired to the main army without further molestation on 
the twenty-ninth. This was a case, which often happened with the Blues, 
of receiving orders from the War Department over the head of McClellan, 
of which he very properly complained. 

In the meantime, as we shall read in the next chapter, General Jackson 
was making his famous dash down the Shenandoah Valley. 

The first position occupied by the Federal Army in its attack upon 
Richmond was a line twelve miles long stretched along the north bank of 
the Chickahominy River, with its left resting near Fair Oaks, a station 
on the Richmond and York Railroad. The river at the time was swollen 
by freshets, and a large part of the heavily wooded swampy country was 
inundated, causing a heavy sick list among the Blues, McClellan himself 
being one of the victims. 

The Grays had destroyed all the bridges and occupied a strong position 
in front of Richmond. In spite of the wretched roads, Heintzleman's and 
Keyes' Corps managed to cross over to the south side of the river. As these 
two corps were confronting the entire Confederate Army that lay con- 
centrated between the Chickahominy and Richmond, and there was but one 
bridge for getting McClellan's main army over to their assistance, it was 
soon realized that Heintzleman and Keyes were in a very perilous position. 
Quick to see the chance, General Joseph E. Johnston on May 31 in a heavy 
downpour of rain, made a vicious attack on these corps, forcing them back 
until their left rested on White Oak swamp and their right in the direction 
of Bottom Bridge. 

Johnston made desperate efforts to reach this bridge, and thus cut off 
the two isolated corps, and he no doubt would have succeeded, had not 
E. V. Summer in the meantime, whose corps lay on the north side of the 
river, quickly constructed two frail bridges by which he got John Sedwick's 
division with twenty-four Napoleon cannons over to the rescue. 

With these fresh forces pouring a terrific fire on to their flanks, the 
Grays were driven back with frightful slaughter, during which General 
Johnston was wounded. Thus the fifteen thousand troops under Sumner 
saved the day, and ended the battle of "Fair Oaks" or "Seven Pines," the 
first of the memorable "Seven days' fight on the peninsular." 

Johnston was an experienced officer in the Mexican War of whom 
General Scott had said, "he had but one bad habit, that of getting 
wounded." 

The next day the Confederates renewed the attack, but were driven 
back in great disorder. General Hooker in hot pursuit chasing them to within 



THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL, WAR 65 

four miles of Richmond, when, in spite of his protests, McClellan called 
him back. 

While the Federal Army lay waiting for clear weather and the expected 
coming of McDowell's Corps, the Confederate cavalry, fifteen hundred 
strong under General J. E. B. Stuart made a most dashing and brilliant 
maneuver by riding deliberately around McClellan's right, and, getting to 
his rear, destroying a lot of stores, and capturing many prisoners on June 
13; then turning, unmolested, he reached Richmond with his booty in 
safety. McClellan's forces at this time were said to number one hundred 
and fifty-seven thousand. 

On Johnston's retirement on account of his wounds, the Confederate 
government appointed as commander-m-chief, General Robert E. Lee, who 
after his operations in West Virginia, had been sent to the Atlantic Coast 
to erect defensive works through North and South Carolina. 

Taking personal command of the army at Richmond, Lee began gather- 
ing in all the scattered troops. Stonewall Jackson, after his skilfully 
managed escape from the Shenandoah Valley, of which we shall read, was 
also to join him. Lee was also greatly re-enforced through the operations 
of the "Conscription Act," forcing all white males between the ages of 
eighteen and thirty-five into the armies 

In the meantime McClellan's army, occupying the same position on 
either side of the Chickahominy, built several bridges over the stream and 
erected defensive works. 

On June 2 5 Hooker was again ordered to advance towards Richmond 
and although opposed stubbornly by the enemy, he succeeded in gaining 
ground, when Stonewall Jackson just from the valley, suddenly appeared at 
Hanover Court-house, threatening McClellan's base at White House, causing 
Hooker to be again recalled. Lee planned to leave Richmond, which had 
been fortified, to a small defending force, and with his army to cross the 
Chickahominy to the west of McClellan's extreme right. McClellan now 
determined to move his base of supplies from the White House to City 
Point on the James River; take his entire army to the south side of the 
Chickahominy, and thence march upon Richmond. 

The movements that followed brought about what was called the Seven 
Day's battle. On June 26 the Confederates under A. P. Hill crossed to the 
north of the Chickahominy, expecting to join with Jackson in the attack 
on the Federal right, which was in a strong position at Beaver Dam Creek 
about one mile above Mechanicsville. Not waiting for Jackson, Hill made a 
vicious attack on the Blues under General Porter, but was repulsed with 
a loss of fifteen hundred. This was called the battle of Mechanicsville^ 
During the night McClellan crossed his army to the south side of 
the river, leaving Porter to protect the approaches to the bridges 
when he was to cross himself and destroy them. The next day 
Hill again attacked Porter and was again repulsed, still he kept to the 
attack. The Federals, being re-enforced on the north side of the river now 
numbered thirty-five thousand. A 3 p. m. the fighting was so severe that 
other forces were sent across to assist Porter. Several times the Grays 
charged upon their foe, but were driven back each time with heavy loss, 
the losses of the Federals being also severe. About 4 p. m. Jackson reached 
Hill, and, joining forces, they made most desperate attacks, in which the 
Confederate conscripts, charging them with a yell right up to the very muzzles 



66 THE C AMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL. WAR 

of Porter's cannons, were mowed down like grass. Just then the lucky 
arrival of brigades under French and Thomas Francis Meagher prevented 
a rout of Porter's command. Finally a dashing charge by four companies 
of Federal cavalry supported by the infantry under French and Meagher, 
forced back the Grays; thus near evening closed the battle of "Gaine's 
Mills" or "Cold Harbor." McClellan's loss was nine thousand men and 
twenty-two guns. During the night all of the United States troops got to 
the south side of the Chickahominy. 

Thinking to capture McClellan's base at White House, Jackson and Hill 
moved upon that place, but found that General Stoneman had removed all 
the stores he could to City Point and destroyed the balance, which was a 
bitter disappointment to the Confederates. McClellan, on the 28th, sent a 
remarkable dispatch to Washington, saying "his soldiers had been over- 
whelmed by a vastly superior force," and that he "would be glad to cover 
his retreat and save the personnel of this army;" that "no one need blush 
for the Army of the Potomac." To the Secretary of War he wrote: "If I 
save this army now I tell you plainly that I owe no thanks to you or any 
other person in Washington; you have done your best to sacrifice the army." 

We now know that McClellan always overestimated Lee's strength, and 
this kept him continually calling for re-enforcements that could not be sent 
him, and made him hesitate in his movements and to act over cautiously. 

On the 29th, McClellan, after blowing up his bridges, instead of advanc- 
ing upon Richmond, as intended, began to retreat southeast to Malvern 
Hill that stands at a bend in the James River. Lee, by rapid marches with a 
force half that of McClellan's, determined to thwart the retreat. He also 
got his whole army on the south of the Chickahominy. In the afternoon, 
Magruder, meeting Sumner's and Heintzleman's Corps near Savage Station 
on the Richmond and York Railroad, made an attack which was repulsed. 
Sumner, in falling back during the night, was obliged to leave twenty-five 
hundred sick and wounded at the station. The next clash was at Frazier's 
Farm on the 30th, when Longstreet and Hill at 4 p. m. made a desperate 
attack upon Geo. A. McCall's division, but were again defeated and held 
at bay. At noon Jackson reached the White Oak Bridge which Franklin, 
in command of McClellan's rear guard had destroyed, and there stood on 
the other side barring the passage of Jackson the whole afternoon, thus 
allowing the main army to get away. Finally, during the night McClellan's 
whole army was camped on Malvern Hill. This is an elevated plateau 
cleared of timber nearly two miles long by a mile wide, with several con- 
verging roads running over it. In front are numerous defensible ravines, 
the ground sloping along gradually towards the north and east, some four 
hundred yards to the woodland giving clear range for artillery in those 
directions. Towards the northwest .the plateau falls off more abruptly to a 
ravine, which extends to the James River. On July 1 the famous battle of 
Malvern Hill and the last of the "Seven Days' Battle" here took place. 

With the whole of his command aligned around the rim of the hill, 
fortified with seventy cannons, McClellan calmly awaited the onslaught of 
the foe. The day opened very hot. Skirmishing began at about 10 a. m., 
but it was not until 6 p. m. that the main attack by Lee began, accompanied 
by heavy fire from his batteries in the woods. Charge after charge was 
made by the gallant Grays up the slopes of the Hill, often to within a 
few yards of the Federal guns, when, being forced back by the galling fire 



THE CAMPAIGNS OP THE CIVIL, WAR 67 

with terrible slaughter, the Blues would dash out of their ramparts and 
chase the panic-stricken foe, capturing standards and prisoners. Thus the 
battle was kept up until 9 p. m., when, during a heavy rain, McClellan's 
jaded troops, who had been continually fighting by day and retreating by 
night for seven days, were ordered to fall back to Harrison's Landing on 
the James, which place they reached near noon the next day. The ex- 
hausted Grays, finding in the morning that the enemy had again slunk 
away, attempted but with feeble efforts to pursue them. Finally they began 
their retirement to Richmond, where they were received by the joyous 
acclamation of the people, and hailed as heroes who had driven the invaders 
from their soil. In the North just the opposite feeling prevailed. The 
grand and thoroughly equipped army of one hundred and sixty thousand 
which left in early March with so much eclat lay stricken defeated, with 
near half its number lost. McClellan's force now was only eighty-six 
thousand. On August 4, after a month's rest the Army of the Potomac 
was ordered to Acquia Creek on the south bank of the Potomac thirty miles 
southeast of Washington as the crow flies. The reason of this move will 
be understood when we review the next disaster to the Union Army, that 
under General Pope, in northern Virginia, which will shortly be related. 

In view of McClellan's advance on Richmond by way of the "Peninsula," 
the Grays, who had occupied Manassas as a military base since Bull Run, 
evacuated this position in April, and McDowell's Corps was sent thither in 
order to cover Washington, and with the intention of his ultimately joining 
the Army of the Potomac as it advanced from Fortress Monroe, Virginia on 
to Richmond. General Banks with his corps was then sent into the Shen- 
andoah Valley with Harper's Ferry as a base. General Fremont's Corps 
was at this time west of the Alleghenies in northwest Virginia, the scene 
of the operations of 1861, and within easy reach to join Banks in his advance 
up the Valley. 

The beautiful and fertile Shenandoah Valley lies in a depression 
formed by one of the numerous folds of the Alleghenies on the west and a 
parallel range called the Blue Ridge Mountains some forty miles east. The 
Valley stretches south over one hundred miles from Harper's Ferry, the 
latter situated in a gap in the Blue Ridge through which the Shenandoah 
River joins the Potomac on its course east to the sea. 

The "Daughters of the Stars," (Indian for Shenandoah) divides about a 
day's march south of Harper's Ferry. The main stream, hugging the base 
of the Blue Ridge, flows through a valley, the Luray, formed on the west 
by a short range of mountains called Massanutten, while the northern fork 
runs its course through the Shenandoah Valley proper. 

Through these two valleys, time after time, during the four years of 
war, tramped and fought the weary armies of the Blue and Gray. Many 
a hard-fought battle was lost or gained by the valiant foes on the fertile 
farms of these picturesque valleys during the great struggle, for there was 
hardly a month that some military movement, some raid or some battle 
was not occurring on those rich old Virginia homesteads. The Blue Ridge 
Mountains are pierced by several gaps a few miles apart that gives access 
from the valley into East Virginia. These passages were time and again 
taken and retaken by both armies, and afforded excellent opportunities 
for strategic movements. 



C8 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 

At the close of the narrative of the operations of 1861, we left the 
Grays under General Stonewall Jackson in the Shenandoah Valley near 
Winchester. When General McClellan, in the early Spring of 1862, started 
from Washington with the Army of the Potomac on his campaign against 
Richmond, this movement compelled Jackson to retire up the Valley; fur- 
thermore his position was threatened by Banks at Harper's Ferry, McDowell 
on the east side of the Blue Ridge, and Fremont in West Virginia. During 
his winter stay in the Valley, Jackson had not been idle. He destroyed 
a portion of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and the canal near Harper's 
Ferry, thus breaking up these communications between Washington and the 
West, and preventing the hastening of troops to protect Washington from 
Ohio. 

As Jackson retired up the Valley, he was closely followed by Shields' 
Division of Bank's command. Turning suddenly at Kernstown, he gave 
battle, but, being repulsed, was obliged to hurry onward by forced marches, 
safely reaching Harrisonburg in the early part of May. Here he was 
reinforced by Richard S. Ewell's Corps, increasing his forces to 17,000. 
Banks about this time was a short distance to the north of Harrisonburg; 
his force, however, had been greatly reduced by the sending of Shields' 
Division over the Blue Ridge to support McDowell. 

Lee directed Jackson to make a feint movement, to give the impression 
that he was leaving the Valley. Taking 6,000 "Foot Cavalry," as his 
infantry had been dubbed, he descended the Valley a short distance, crossed 
through one of the gaps into East Virginia, and then, by a circuitous route, 
rapidly returned and joined Ewell. Banks, now finding himself out- 
numbered two to one with his base one hundred miles to the north, de- 
termined to get out of his perilous position by making a "ma.sterly retreat." 
General Fremont was ordered to get quickly from the west into the Valley 
to the support of Banks, but Jackson prevented this move. Leaving Ewell 
to keep an eye on Banks he sallied forth to meet Fremont's advancing 
columns, and ran up against a brigade under General Robert H. Milroy at a 
place called McDowell, where after several hours of hard fighting he suc- 
ceeded in driving the Blues back some thirty miles. The Blues being 
reinforced, another battle ensued resulting in their being again forced back 
to Franklin, a place about thirty-five miles northwest of Banks' position. 
Jackson, realizing that he was straying too far from the main force under 
Ewell, was anxious to get back in order to accomplish the capture of Banks' 
army. Still it was absolutely necessary to this end to prevent Fremont 
from getting into the Valley. In this object Jackson was greatly assisted 
by the friendly farmers who, felling large trees blocked up the roads and 
then set fire to the forests on the mountain sides. Jackson, now quickly 
returning to the Valley, joined Ewell and then began the chase after Banks, 
who had just started on his retreat, being compelled to destroy a large 
quantity of stores that it would have been impossible for him to carry 
along. It was the worst season of the year for army movements; the roads 
were rivers of mud, the fields were bogs, but in spite of these serious obstacles, 
both Blue and Gray pushed on with most remarkable speed. 

Banks' route was down the Shenandoah, while Jackson rushed through 
the Luray intending to head his enemy off at Front Royal. This place he 
reached on May 30, capturing there Colonel Kenly's small garrison. 



THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 69 

Banks was then directly to the west of Jackson and in great peril. 
Destroying- everything that would impede his haste, he ordered a forced 
march, and reached Winchester at midnight with the Grays close at his 
heels. Continuing the tireless march day and night, his rear guard in 
constant combat with Jackson's advances, finally, on May 2 6, he got what 
was left of his exhausted command in safety on the north side of the 
Potomac River near Williamsburg some distance west of Harper's Ferry. 
He had lost, however, over two thousand prisoners and several thousand 
small arms. Jackson then continued north threatening Harper's Ferry. 

This brilliant dash of Jackson filled the minds of the authorities at 
Washington with the greatest apprehension for the safety of the city. The 
State Governors were ordered to have every available man ready for instant 
march to the protection of the Nation's capital. President Lincoln took 
possession of every railroad for the purpose, and every effort was now 
made to bag the wily Jackson. 

McDowell, still east of the Blue Ridge, .having advanced well south of 
Fredericksburg, was, in spite of his protests, ordered to fall back towards 
Washington, for he knew full well, as an able commander, that Jackson's 
small force could accomplish no great harm. 

Fremont was directed to get quickly into the Valley in Jackson's rear. 
In so doing, instead of taking a direct easterly route, he marched north- 
easterly and entered the Valley June 1, but instead of being south of the 
enemy, he found himself to the north, for Jackson, seeing his peril, had 
quickly retired. In the meantime McDowell had sent Shields' Division up 
the Luray, while Banks pushed south to swell the forces against the Grays. 
Jackson with speed and skill got his command at Harrisonburg, when 
turning suddenly upon Fremont at Port Republic he gave battle. This 
not only resulted in a repulse of the Grays, but they lost one of their fine 
generals, Ashley, who was killed. Shields and Fremont were separated by 
the river, and Jackson was obliged to divide his force of some 13,000 in 
order to prevent their union. Still retreating, closely followed by Fremont, 
Jackson waited at a hamlet called Cross Keys for Fremont's attack, which 
occurred June 8, when the Blues Vv^ere completely checked. Then Jackson 
determined to turn against Shields. Leaving a small force in front of 
Fremont, and hurling his main body of troops upon Shields' advancing 
columns, he drove them back five miles after a ferocious and stubborn fight 
on the part of the Blues. Shield now being re-enforced by fresh infantry 
and artillery, the battle was renewed, resulting in Jackson being compelled 
to retire. The fighting in this engagement was most terrific on both sides, 
one battery alone being won and lost three times. 

Jackson now rapidly crossed the river to the south, and, burning the 
bridge behind him, slipped with his whole command through the mountains, 
and joined Lee near Richmond ready to take part in the seven days' fight, 
of which we have read. 

"In Napoleonic style he had made a magnificent dash down the Valley, 
caused troops to be taken from McClellan who was then in front of Rich- 
mond; out-generaled both Shields and Fremont; given the people of the 
North a fright for the safety of their capital, and performed one of the 
greatest strategic movements in the history of the war." Draper- Jackson 
having left the Valley, Shields returned to McDowell, while Fremont and 
Banks retired to their original positions. 



70 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 



While at the zenith of fame after the victories of his army of the 
Mississippi General Pope was . ordered east on /une 26, and placed in com- 
mand of a new organization called the Army of Virginia, the intention of 
the War Department being to unite the separate commands of McDowell, 
Banks and Fremont under one commander, which would not only act as a 
defensive force between the enemy and Washington, but could operate In 
conjunction with McClellan's army at that time in front of Richmond. 

Among the first official acts of Pope was to remove General Fremont, 
whom he replaced by General Franz Sigel, who had done vast work in 
retaining Missouri to the Union. 

Burnside's corps, just returned from its victories in North Carolina, and 
now at Alexandria, Va., was also added to Pope's army, making his force 
forty-three thousand men. 

With considerable fanfare and meteoric official orders to his troops, in 
which by innuendo the former campaigns in Virginia were adversely re- 
flected upon, Pope sanguinely intimated that his future plans would involve 
only the offensive, that, "with headquarters in the saddle," he would advance 
to Richmond. In vain he prote.sted to the War Department against the 
retirement of McClellan before Lee, which was then taking place on the 
Peninsular, for, if the Army of the Potomac would but hold Lee in check 
a short time, he could get the Army of Virginia to the rear of the Con- 
federates and together the two armies would crush Lee. 

It was at this stage of affairs that General Halleck was called from 
Corinth, Miss., and made the General-in-Chief of all the United States forces, 
the Administration trusting thus to enable McClellan to give his sole atten- 
tion to the campaign and also to bring the operations of all the scattered 
departments under the one directing mind. 

General Lee, having driven McClellan's army after the "Seven Days' 
Battle" to Harrison Landing, determined to strike Pope before a union of the 
armies of the Potomac and Virginia could be consummated, and early in 
August with this intention he pushed his advance guards near Cedar Moun- 
tains on the south side of the Rapidan River a few miles west of Fredericks- 
burg. This was at the very time that General Bragg was making a successful 
sortie into Kentucky a jubilant period for the Grays and a correspondingly 
despondent one for the Blues. 

The rapid and skilful maneuvers of Lee which threatened Washington 
compelled the hurried shifting of the Army of the Potomac to Acquia Creek 
on the Potomac River to defend the capital, and also to be within easy dis- 
tance to assist Pope, who was now confronted by the whole of Lee's forces, 
outnumbering the Army of Virginia two to one. 

The tension of anxiety at the North was now so great that President 
Lincoln issued a call for three hundred thousand troops, by draft if necessary, 
to replace the frightful losses sustained on the firing lines. At the same 
time the Confederate Government passed a conscription law impressing into 
the armies every white male between the ages of eighteen and forty-five. 

It is surprising, and difficult to realize that the most ferocious fighting 
was done by these conscripts. 

The first clash between Lee's and Pope's armies occurred on August 9, 
near Culpeper Court House, on the Cedar Run stream, where Pope's advance 
of eight thousand under General Banks found themselves again confronted 
by their old enemy. It was part of Stonewall Jackson's army under com- 



THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 71 



mand of General Early, the same Gray veterans who had chased Banks out 
of the Shenandoah Valley in the early spring. 

Cedar Run battle opened with several hours of heavy cannonading by 
the Blues. The wily Jackson so disguised his movements as to lead Banks 
into a fatal misconception of the position of his foe. Banks even sent word 
to General Pope, whose headquarters were some eight miles away at Culpeper 
Court House, that he expected no serious engagement, but hardly had the 
courier started with the dispatch, when Jackson's forces suddenly loomed 
in sight on the mountain slopes to the west, threatening his flank. The 
battle at once became general along the whole of Banks' front, the Blues 
on their right making gallant charges through fields of wheat and corn, 
driving everything before them, and at one time nearly turning the flanks 
of the Grays. Just then re-enforcements reaching the Confederates, they 
in turn undauntedly bore down upon the victorious Blues, and drove them 
back pell mell with terrible slaughter. Still the fighting was furiously kept 
up; the ranks of the Grays being further re-enforced with fresh men, they 
again charged and forced Banks' line back with still further fearful havoc, 
and night alone brought to an end the carnage of perhaps one of the fiercest 
battles of the war, for those two old foes seemed to have a deep settled grudge 
from the spring before to fight out. 

That night to the fagged out Grays fell the burdensome duty of burying 
the dead and caring for the wounded of both armies. Banks had again been 
outwitted, and outgeneraled by his old antagonist Jackson. 

Lee now rapidly cencentrated all his forces, with the intention of 
annihilating Pope's army before McClellan could come to his assistance. 
Making a feint movement as if to cross the Rappahannock River at the 
centre, he sent Jackson on a forced and adventurous march around to the 
rear of Pope's right. This the skilful captain so well executed that on 
August 26 he had his army between Pope and Washington. In this perilous 
position Pope kept clamoring for more troops to enable him to entrap 
Jackson. In response there were sent from McClellan's force of ninety 
thousand at Acquia a meagre twenty thousand composed of Heintzleman 
and Porter's Corps. 

Jackson had gained one great object of his bold sortie in the capture of 
Pope's depot of supplies, containing an immense quantity of food and munitions 
that his own famished army was sadly in need of. He also captured Pope's 
dispatch book, giving him the very important information he was seeking to 
know. 

Lee now rushed Longstreet's corps to the assistance of the threatened 
Jackson, who had now withdrawn to Manassas to await succor. 

On August 28, Jackson, without waiting for Longstreet, decided to take 
the chance of an attack, and a fierce battle ensued, which lasted all day and 
well into the night, resulting in the Blues slowly retreating. It was claimed 
by Pope that had General Fitz-John Porter obeyed his orders to rush west and 
to the rear of Jackson's position, which it was insisted he easily could have 
done, the result would have been the destruction of Jackson's forces. 

This battle was named by the Blues the "Second Battle of Bull Run," as 
it occurred near the site of the first encounter of the war. By the Grays it 
was called the "Second Manassas." 

All during the night and the forenoon of the twenty-ninth. Pope spent in 



72 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 

skilfully concentrating every available troop, vi^ith the intention of ovei-whelm- 
ing Jackson before Longstreet could come to 1;he rescue. But Longstreet's 
jaded troops had been pushing on with heartrendering continuous marches 
day and night. Near the end he was forced to bring his command through a 
narrow mountain gorge of but a few hundred yards wide, called Thoroughfare 
Gap, in the Bull Run Mountains, which range runs east and parallel to the 
Blue Ridge chain. At the opposite end of the gap a strong force of Pope's 
command stood guarding the pass, and from the sharp fire of the Blues' sharp- 
shooters the Grays were forced to retire. Taking the footpaths along the 
mountain slopes, Longstreet's infantry by strategy and rapid movements suc- 
ceeded in getting to Pope's rear, causing him to change front. This was 
promptly executed, and he desperately attacked both Jackson and Longstreet in 
their perilous positions. All during the afternoon the repeated charges of the 
Blues were repulsed, with terrible slaughter, by the steady Grays. This fear- 
ful fighting- was kept up until nine at night, when the Blues were driven with 
great loss from the field. On the morning of the 30th the firing lines of the 
combatants were but a few hundred yards apart and several miles in extent. 

At dawn the battle was renewed with vigorous fighting lasting until the 
fifternoon, when Pope, massing his forces against Jackson, caused a bloody 
encounter to ensue at close range. In charge after charge the Blues rushed 
on, only to be repulsed with fearful losses. Jackson's men now took the 
offensive, and rushed forward along the whole length of the line, hurling the 
Blues from position after position in their relentless onslaughts, and for the 
second time in the war the Nationals were forced across the memorable "Bull 
Run." In the mighty rush over the fields, the bodies of the killed and 
wounded Blues were crushed by the flying Grays' artillery and cavalry. 

Jackson's pursuit was kept up till one o'clock at night, when Pope's shat- 
tered army, being re-enforced by ten thousand under Generals Franklin and 
Sumner, took up a position at bay. Still the weary, but courageous Grays kept 
at the fight, endeavoring to get to Pope's rear, which they no doubt would 
have succeeded in doing had not a heavy cold, drenching rain, compelled the 
worn-out troops, who had been many days marching, and for the last three 
days continuously fighting, to give up plodding through the muddy roads. 

At Chantilly, or Ox Hill, on September 1, in the afternoon, these com- 
batants clinched again, and fought furiously until dark, the Blues loosing their 
Generals, Philip Kearney and Isaac I. Stephens. 

General Pope, in his report of the battle of the 30th, said: "The heavy 
assault of the enemy about 5 p. m., which was attended by great slaughter, 
was carried on for several hours. Our men behaved with firmness and gal- 
lantry, the right held its ground, but the left was forced back half a mile. 
Starvation stared both man and beast in the face." 

Broken and exhausted. Pope's army was compelled to retire under the 
protection of the Washington fortifications. Lee's army also was suffering for 
want of supplies, and he made an urgent appeal to the people of the South for 
food and clothes. In speaking of this event. Pollock says "Lee's men were 
Vjarefoot, ragged, foot sore by forced marches, and almost constant daily 
fighting." 

Thus General Lee had skilfully transferred the theatre of war from the 
gates of Richmond to the doors of Washington by outgeneraling McClellan 
and Pope, gaining glorious victories against a foe splendidly equipped and 
superior in numbers. When the news of his grand success reached his sister. 



THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL, WAR 73 

Mrs. Marshall, then residing at Baltimore, she deplored the terrible losses of 
the Blues, for she was a staunch Unionist, and it is reported that she said, 
"but they can't lick Bob." 

Pope laid the blame of his disastrous defeat to the failure of the War 
Department in not sending to his assistance McClellan's thousands, who were 
standing inactive only a short distance from the field, and especially to the 
behavior of General Fitz-John Porter in refusing to obey his orders to move 
quickly between Jackson and Thoroughfare Gap on the 29th, and again re- 
fusing on the 30th, when ordered to get to the rear of Jackson's right, which 
it was claimed he easily could have done. Had these orders been promptly car- 
ried out, Jackson would have been crushed before the arrival of Longstreet. 
Pope then resigned in disgust from the service. Later on, General Porter was 
tried, found guilty, and dismissed from the army. After the war, however, fol- 
lowing an investigation by Congress he was exonerated of the charges of dis- 
obedience. Colonel Dodge says in his splendid "Bird's-Eye View of Our Civil 
War," .that "Pope attributed his overthrow to the failure of Fitz-John Porter to 
obey' orders to attack Longstreet on August 2!Jtli. Facts now well known ex- 
onerate this officer." 

At the particular solicitation of the Davis administration, Lee began, 
early in September, immediately after defeating Pope's Army of Virginia, 
his famous sortie north, which culminated in the memorable battle of 
Antietam. Without waiting for the much needed supplies from Rich- 
mond, he pressed forward unmolested, and crossing the Potomac River 
near Point of Rocks, just east of Harper's Ferry, on September 5, 
brought his Army of Northern Virginia for the first time into 
the country of the foe. Lee counted upon the people of Maryland reoeiving 
him with open arms, and upon assembling from the populace new recruits 
to augnnent his thinned ranks. 

Reaching Frederick, Maryland, on the 8th he issued an address to the 
inhabitants saying "he had come to right their wrongs," while his army 
marched through the town singing "Maryland, My Maryland,"" to the grand 
old German tune of "Tannenbaum". 

To Lee's dismay and surprise he found that the people he so much 
counted upon did not respond — in fact they remained decidedly lukewarm. 
This action was commented upon by a northern newspaper correspondent 
as follows: "Their expressions of joy and confidence appeared to have 
been lost in the one prevailing sentiment of wonder that the ragged men, 
stained with rain and dust and dirt, so devoid of pomp of war, so unlike 
what they had been accustomed to see of soldiers, could be the army which 
had defeated in so many engagements the splendid corps of the North." 

Lee's sudden appearance in Maryland raised the most intense consterna- 
tion throughout the North, especially in Pennsylvania. Troops rushed from 
Philadelphia to the protection of the State Capital, Harrisburg; McClellan 
was recalled to the command of the national fighting forces at hand, and 
ordered with the Army of the Potomac to follow and destroy the invaders. 
He reached Frederick just three days after Lee's address at that place. 

Lee now executed in the very face of McClellan a daring maneuver. 
He divided his army, sending Jackson, with twenty-five thousand troops, to 
capture Harper's Ferry, while the balance of his force was scattered through 
the South Mountains. At McClellan's advance, Lee finding the force under 
his personal command in a perilous position, issued orders to the scattered 



THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVII^ WAR 



parts to concentrate. A copy of this or^er falling into the hands of 
McClellan revealed not only the position of his foe, but informed him of 
Lee's plans. He then hurried his command on, intending to get control 
of two important gaps in the South Mountains before Lee could reach them. 
But Lee's forces won the race. These gaps Crampton and Turner, however, 
were finally occupied by the Blues after severe fighting. 

Jackson, on the 15th, after a grand but murderous bombardment of 
two hours from his strategically placed guns on the surrounding heights 
compelled the surrender of Harper's Ferry, with its garrison of thirteen 
thousand men, seventy-three guns and a large amount of valuable stores, 
then under the command of Miles. Thus the famous old arsenal, for a 
second time, fell into the hands of the Grays, all by reason of McClellan'a 
army remaining inactive several days, when it should have been hurrying 
to the relief of Miles. 

Leaving a small detachment to attend to the occupation of Harper's 
Perry, Jackson dashed with the utmost speed to join Lee, whom he reached 
on the 17th, jvist in time to take the most active part in the battle of 
Antietam. 

The delay required for the capture of Harper's Ferry, together with 
the fact of McClellan's army lying in his path, compelled Lee to give up 
his invasion of the North, and immediately, on the arrival of Jackson, he 
fell back to a defensive position on a ridge near Sharpsburg, about eight 
miles north of Harper's Ferry. To his rear was the Potomac River, to the 
front a rolling country with some cultivated fields bordering a sluggish 
creek called Antietain, from which the coming battle was to receive its 
name by the Blues, but the Grays called it Sharpsburg. 

On September 17, McClellan's army was drawn up on the hills on the 
opposite side of the creek; Burnside on the left confronting Longstreet; Fitz- 
John Porter in the centre opposed to D. H. Hill; Hooker and Sumner on 
the right facing Jackson. 

The battle opened at sunrise with a desperate and enduring artillery 
duel, followed soon after by an infantry contest, when Hooker's corps, making 
a furious charge through cornfields and up the slopes on Jackson, drove the 
Grays' front back into the woods on to their reserves, who, rallying, turned 
and pushed Hooker's men back again to the creek. "The carnage on both sides 
was horrible, more than half of Hooker's men were killed or wounded; every 
regimental commander but two were down, and the corps nearly destroyed." — 
Draper. At nine a. m. Mansfield's corps advanced to the support of Hooker; 
the Grays being re-enforced, another awful encounter took place over the same 
bloody field, in which General Mansfield was killed, Hooker wounded, and the 
Blues again forced back with direful slaughter to their first position. During all 
this terrific fighting on McClellan's right, the remainder of his vast army stood 
idly looking on. Sumner, who was to the left of Hooker, now advanced his 
corps to the assault. The Grays being further re-enforced charged upon the 
advancing Blues, causing them to retire, when Franklin, coming up, turned 
upon the foe and drove them back into their entrenchments on the ridge and 
thus saved the day. With the exception of several vain attempts about one 
o'clock p. m. on the part of Burnside on the left to take a bridge crossing the 
Antietam Creek, no other portion of McClelland's forces had been engaged in 
the famous battle. The number of the killed and wounded of both the Blues 
and Grays reached twenty thousand. Twenty-seven hundreds of the Grays' 



THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 75 

dead were buried after the battle by the Blues. It was a drawn battle, each 
army occupying its original position. The number of the Blues engaged was 
87,000; that of the Grays 50,000. 

Lee waited all of September 18 in anticipation of another attack, which, 
however, did not occur. With his army worn out with so many weeks of 
arduous marching and fighting, and without food and clothing, and with the 
rank and file thinned by frightful losses, he determined to retire and save his 
command. This he did without molestation during the night of the 18th. The 
next day McClellan telegraphed President Lincoln "Our victory is complete, the 
enemy is driven back into Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania are now safe." 
He made no attempt at pursuit, except to order an advance by Fitz-John Porter 
on the 20th, which was soon checked. He gave as a reason for his inaction 
that his army was exliausted and without supplies. 

The Grays' cavalry, under J. E. B. Stuart, now made a dash on Chambers- 
burg, Pennsylvania, where they destroyed a large quantity of stores and 
property and, finally, executing a complete circuit of McClellan's army, in 
which four thousand well equipped horsemen stood idle. He crossed the 
Potomac River east of the Union forces safely into Virginia. 

Lee retired quietly to Winchester among the friendly farmers in the Shen- 
andoah Valley, to rest and recruit his wornout command. 

For over five months the Blue and Gray had been continually marching, 
and fighting a dozen battles, with reckless audacity performing feats of valor, 
the like of which had never been witnessed in modern warfare. 

The Southern historian, Eggleston, in his excellent "History of the Con- 
federate War," in speaking of Lee's movements just before the battle OX 
Antietam, says: "Instead of advancing to conquer Washington or Baltimore, 
Lee fell back into a defensive position, there to meet an army nearly or quite 
twice as large as his own." In the meanwhile, the necessity of livkig upon the 
country had completely demoralized those "lewd fellows of the baser sort" who 
constitute a pestilently important contingent in every fighting force. Men 
were away raiding chicken coops, when they should have been in line with 
guns in their hands. Straggling was general beyond precedent, so that Lee 
declared that his army was "ruined by it," while D. H. Hill said in his report 
of the operations, "had all our stragglers been up, McClellan's army would 
have been completely crushed or annihilated; thousands of thieving poltroons 
had kept away from sheer cowardice." But with an "if," it is easy to explain 
anything. 

Re-enforcing McClellan's army to one hundred and fifty thousand strong, 
Lincoln urged an advance, but McClellan declined to do so until shoes and other 
supplies were provided. Finally, on November 1, he got under way, marching 
along the eastern base of the Blue Ridge, while Lee, on the other side, was 
hurrying south up the Shenandoah Valley. 

The hue and cry of the press and people at the North, "exasperated by 
McClelland's tardiness," forced the Administration to relieve him, whereupon 
Burnside was made the Commander of the Army of the Potomac. 

President Lincoln had been waiting for a great Union victory in order 
that he might issue, under favorable auspices, a Proclamation of Emancipa- 
tion of all slaves in insurgent territory, which by a fixed date should not 
have returned to allegiance to the Union. The battle of Antietam furnished 
this occasion, and the Proclamation was published on September 23, 1862. 



THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 



The measure was endorsed on the following day by a conference of Northern 
State Governors in Altoona, Pa., and generally approved by the press and 
prominent people of the North. Nevertheless, the ranks of the opposition 
in Congress to the Administration were greatly increased in the fall elections. 
Abroad, the Proclamation was hailed with approval by the common people, 
and the influence of this public opinion with their governments caused these 
to abandon all idea of intervention in America in favor of the Confederacy. 

The Proclamation became operative on January 1, 1863, none of the 
States or portions of States in rebellion having laid down their arms. 

Getting his army through the gaps of the Blue Ridge, Lee formed his 
line behind strong fortifications along a range of hills to the south of 
Fredericksburg. Burnside's force took up position on another range of 
hills north of the Rappahannock River, with the plain on which the city 
stood lying under command of the guns of both armies. 

As all the bridges crossing the river had been destroyed by Lee, Burnside 
was compelled to construct pontoons, which proved slow and hazardous 
work under the hot fire from the Grays' sharpshooters. However, on 
December 10, under support of a brisk bombardment by the artillery firing 
over their heads, some few national troops succeeded in getting across the 
river and driving the annoying sharpshooters away at the point of the 
bayonet. Shortly afterwards, pontoons being erected at several points, the 
army got across the river and took up position between the city and the 
fortified heights occupied by Lee. Lee's line was an arc concaved around 
the city, with the left under Longstreet a mile above, and the right under 
Jackson some four miles below the city, in all eighty thousand strong. The 
national risht was held by Sumner, the left by Franklin and the centre by 
Hooker. "These were practically separate armies and robbed the whole 
body of elastic force and mobility," says Dodge. 

On the foggy morning of December 13, 1862, the battle of Fredericksburg 
began by a division under General Meade, of Franklin's corps, charging 
on Jackson's right, and taking the heights; but not being promptly sup- 
ported the charges were forced back with a loss of over one-third their 
number. In the afternoon, Sumner's corps on the right advanced up the 
sloping plain -towards the enemy's works, under support of a bombardment 
by the artillery, which spread over the heads of the charging men "a 
canopy of iron." The Grays, carefully reserving their ammunition until 
Sumner's men got half way across the plain, suddenly opened a terrific 
concentrated fire along their whole front. Of the resulting carnage in- 
flicted on the Blues, Longstreet reported that "the gaps in the Union line 
made by our artillery could be seen half a mile off. The line was soon 
dispersed. Another one was sent forward, closing in two-thirds of the plain, 
but the charging party was raked right and left; falling back they reformed 
and a third time tried to take the ramparts by bayonet, but failed." Hooker 
in the centre reported "that when I gave orders for General Humphrey's 
division, four thousand strong, to charge the centre of the enemy's, the men 
moved forward with impetuosity and advanced within fifteen to six- 
teen yards of a stone wall, which was the advanced position held by the 
foe, and then they were thrown back as quickly as they had advanced, going 
and coming took only fifteen minutes, but they left behind seventeen hundred 
and sixty." The total loss to the Nationals is given for the entire battle at 



THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 77 

thirteen thousand. "No such useless slaughter, with the exception, perhaps, 
of Cold Harbor in 18 64, occurred during our war," says Dodge. 

Regarding Lee's position impregnable, Burnside retired on the 15th to 
his original line on the range of hills north of the city, which move he made 
under cover of night. 

Towards the end of December preparations were made by Burnside to 
pass Lee and proceed on to Richmond, when he was relieved of coinmand 
and superseded by Major-General Joseph Hooker. Generals Franklin and 
Sumner were also relieved of their commands. This closed the campaigns 
between the Blue and Gray of the year 1862 in Virginia. 

Secretary of War Stanton in his report of December, 1862, said "that 
some eight hundred thousand troops had been equipped during the year and 
that Congress would have to provide for one million during 1863." From 
a survey of the field of operations it is apparent that whatever disasters 
our armies may have suffered, a great advance has nevertheless been made 
since the commencement of the war. When it began the enemy held Nor- 
folk, Va., and every part of the Southern coast; they also held the Missis- 
sippi from Cairo to New Orleans. Now the blockaded ports of Charleston, 
South Carolina, and Mobile, Alabama, alone remain to them, on the sea- 
. board, and New Orleans and Memphis have been wrested from them. 
Their possessions of Vicksburg obstructs the Mississippi, but it is to them 
of no commercial use. The enemy has been driven from Kentucky, West 
Tennessee, Missouri, part of Arkansas, and are fleeing before Grant in 
Mississippi and all their hopes in Maryland are cut off. In commercial, 
political and strategic points of view, more success had attended the Union 
cause than was ever witnessed upon so large a theater of war in the same brief 
period against so formidable an enemy. The military force of the Union 
is more mighty in all the elements of warfare than was ever before arrayed 
under one banner. 

Edward A. Pollard, the Southern historian, in his "Lost Cause," writes of 
affairs of this period of the war. "The series of disasters to the Confederates in 
the early part of 18G2 may be distinctly and sufficiently traced to human 
causes, to human mismanagement. No one who lived in Richmond during the 
war can ever forget these gloomy, miserable days. President Davis, to the 
popular complaint of inefficiency in the Department, replied that they had 
done all which human power and foresight enabled them to accomplish, and 
then lifted up in conclusion a piteous, beautiful, appropriate prayer for the 
favor of Divine Providence." Further on. Pollard says, "as to the Antietam 
campaign of 1802 the moral effect of their results was great and the position 
of the Confederates was now very different from what it had been in the early 
part of the year. The glory of their arms now attracted the attention of the 
world, and, although they had been forced to retire, they had proved that the 
subjugation of the South was a task which the enemy had only commenced. 
They had raised the siege of Richmond and threatened Washington; beaten the 
enemy back in that quarter to what had been the threshold of the war." 

The London Times declared that the history of these campaigns comprised 
a list of military achievements almost without parallel, and added "Whatever 
be the fate of the new Nationality or its subsequent claims to the respect of 
mankind, it will assuredly begin its career with a reputation for genius and 
valor which the most famous nations may envy." 



THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL, WAR 



CHAPTER VIII. 

The Vicksburg Campaign, 1863. 

Military Situation at the Beginning of the Year — Confederate Cruisers — • 
Grant's Second Campaign Against Vicksburg — Yazoo Expedition — Attack on 
Haines' Bluff — Capture of Grand Gulf — Grierson's Raid — Grant's Occupation 
of Jackson, Miss. — Battle of Champion Hills — Battle of Big Black River — 
Siege of Vicksburg — Its Fall — Confederate Repulse at Helena, Ark. — Capture 
of Port Hudson — Minor Engagements. 

At the commenceinent of the third year of the great struggle, the 
National armies numbered eight hundred thousand men including one hun- 
dred thousand black. The Navy had been increased to over four hundred 
vessels. While the Confederate forces closely approximated a like number 
of troops, their Navy consisted mainly of small crafts designed for the 
navigation of inland waters. 

At this time both North and South were bitterly complaining of mis- 
management in military affairs — the lack of scientific methods and the 
over-abundance of political generalship and interference with the com- 
manders in the field. 

The Southern historian, Pollard, states "that there were constant com- 
plaints of the incompetency with which the military affairs of the South 
were conducted by the maladministration of the political leaders dominating 
the ideas and plans of the generals in the field." This statement applies 
with equal force to the prevailing state of sentiment on the subject at the 
North. 

At the beginning of the third year of the war. Grant with the Army of 
the Tennessee was at Milliken Bend, Mississippi, preparing for the beleaguer- 
ing of Vicksburg, opposed by the armies of Joseph E. Johnston and 
Pemberton. 

The Army of the Cumberland under General Rosecrans was near 
Murfreesboro, in Tennessee, confronting the Grays under General Bragg. 

The Army of the Ohio under General Burnside was at Knoxville, opposed 
by General Bruckner. 

The Army of the Gulf was under General Banks, against whom was 
Richard Taylor. This department was preparing for the capture of Port 
Hudson, a very important stronghold on the Mississippi River, two hundred 
and fifty miles below Vicksburg, and some one hundred and thirty-five miles 
above New Orleans. 

The Army of the Potomac under General Hooker was to the north of the 
Rapidan River, in East Virginia, facing General Lee's Army of Northern 
Virginia, then entrenched at Fredericksburg. 

Maneuvering and fighting took place during the year of 1863 by these 
various armies almost simultaneously over the vast war zone. There was 
hardly a day when fighting was not going on between these combatants, but 
as only one campaign can be recited at a time, the reader must bear in mind 
that, while reviewing one of the scenes of action, others are taking place at 
the same time at the various places in the great theatre of war. 



THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 79 

A sti'ingent blockade of ports along the three thousand miles of sea- 
coast was maintained by the National fleet. Nevertheless, blockade runners 
managed to get in and out without detection in spite of the hazardous 
undertaking. 

The Confederate crui-sers which had been built and fitted out in English 
ports were driving the National Commerce from the seas. Those privateers 
did inestimable damage, capturing many of the American merchant marine 
and securing vast treasures, all in spite of the Lincoln Administration's 
protest to the British Government for its violation of neutrality, by permitting 
the fitting out of these vessels in British ports. 

America's claims for the resulting damages, however, were finally 
admitted and settled for on the part of England under the so-called "Alabama 
Claims" by a Commission of Arbitration held in Geneva, Switzerland, in 
1872, resulting in moral victory for America over England. The decision of 
the Commission was that the British Government should pay to the United 
States fifteen million dollars indemnity as the price for having sympathized 
with the "Lost Cause." 

At the beginning of the year we left General Grant's Army of the 
Tennessee preparing for his second campaign agaiitst Vicksburg, Mississippi. 
His army consisted of the 13th Corps under General McClernard; the 15th 
under General W. T. Sherman; the 16th under General Stephen Augustus 
Hurlburt, and the 17th under General James Birdseye McPherson. 

After the capture of Arkansas Post, already noted. Grant assembled 
his army at Young's Point, a landing place on the west banks of the 
Mississippi River, almost opposite Vicksburg, and separated from that strong- 
hold by a peninsula of fiat lands formed in a sharp bend of the river. 

In order to bring his forces south of the enemy's forts on the heights 
of Vicksburg, he began finishing the canal started the year before by General 
Williams of the Department of the Gulf. Granting this canal to be a success, 
it would turn the course of the river and leave Vicksburg inland. After 
the most indefatigable efforts, the laboring of day and night, extending to 
the middle of March, the sudden rising of the river, together with heavy 
downpours of rains, caused the dam to give way, after which the work on 
the canal was abandoned. 

There are two great turns in this portion of the inighty river; one to 
the north of Vicksburg called Milliken Bend, and the second to the south 
called New Carthage. These bends are connected to the west of the 
Mississippi by a parallel stream called Tensas River. Attempts were made 
by Grant to use this river as his route south by deepening its channels, but 
the falling of the waters and an unfavorable season compelled the engineers 
to give up their efforts. 

Entering the Mississippi just north of Vicksburg is the Yazoo River, 
which flows almost due south through the State of Mississippi. Some two 
hundred and fifty miles up this tortuous stream in Greenwood, where 
the Tallahatchie and the Yalobusha rivers join it. 

The mouth of the Yazoo had been closed by a levee. This the Blues 
cut, and the waters of the Mississippi River, which were ten feet higher than 
the lowlands behind the levee, rushed through, tearing up a passage. 

With the object of approaching Vicksburg by a northern route, Grant 
in the early part of March sent an expedition up the Yazoo, which, reaching 
Greenwood, attacked there Fort Pemberton, but failed in its capture. 



80 THE CAMrAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 

This whole region for hundreds of square miles is a vast heavy wooded 
swamp, cut up by numerous bayous, creeks and streams, with the forests 
so dense that torches, even in the daytime, had to be employed by the Blues 
to light their way throvigh the jungles, in their endeavors to clear the river 
of the heavy massive fallen logs, in order to make a passage for the gun- 
boats and transports. Besides this the country was malarial and the river 
water was so bad to drink that it was the cause of a constant and heavy 
sick list among the Blues, while the Grays, being to a great extent immune 
against the miasmatic climate, escaped much of this misery. 

The expedition of gunboats and a division under General W. T. 
Sherman met with insurmountable difficulties during constant rainy weather 
forging a way through these dense forests, jungles and marshes. 

Grant in his Memoirs in speaking of the canal and Yazoo incidents, says: 
"I, myself, never felt great confidence that any of the experiments resorted 
to would prove successful, nevertheless, I was always prepared to take 
advantage of them." 

Grant finally gave up trying to reach the rear of Vicksburg by way of 
the Yazoo marshes and on March 29 started for New Carthage, some forty 
miles below Vicksburg and seventy miles south of his camp at Milliken Bend, 
via the Tensas River. ' 

The problem before him, was how to get to the rear of Vicksburg, for 
it had been found impracticable of attack on the front from the low swamps 
on the west side of the Mississippi River. Therefore, Grant had but two 
courses to pursue; the first of which was to go back and make Memphis 
his base, and from there proceed along the railroads to the Yalobusha River; 
thence to Jackson, Miss. In his Memoirs as to this plan he says "that the 
retrogressive movement would have at that time been interpreted by the 
press and people at the North as a retreat on the part of my army." 
Accordingly, he adopted the second very hazardous plan of approaching 
Vicksburg from the south. 

This was another case of a General in the field being forced to do a 
technical wrong, in which much suffering for man and beast and expense 
for the government would be incurred, simply in deference to a censorious, 
meddlesome press bent on inflaming the people's minds, thus interfering 
with the scientific management of the war. 

While the east side of the Mississippi River at Vicksburg is composed 
of high bluffs, the west bank is a flat country cut up with numerous bayous, 
where there is hardly a bit of dry ground upon which to form a camp. 
Grant's army on its march south through these swampy regions was stretched 
along the banks of the narrow levees for miles, and to make matters still 
more hazardous, the river at the time was unusually high and the incessant 
rains, following an unprecedented winter, caused the greatest hardships for 
his army. 

The bluffs on which Vicksburg stands follows the left bank of the Yazoo, 
eleven miles to the north of the city at Haines' Bluff, where stood strong 
fortifications. Thence for a distance south of some seventeen miles to 
Warrenton these bluffs were a continuous line of entrenchments and batteries. 

To bring this southerly movement of Grant's to a success it was necessary 
for Porter's fleet to run the gauntlet of these miles of forts. The fleet started 
on April 16 with seven naval vessels, followed by three transports towing 
barges loaded with coal, and then three gunboats bring up the rear. Under 
constant fire, giving and taking at close range, the fleet forged through the 



THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL. WAR 81 

terrific passage of iron hail, every vessel being struck many times. At night 
the Grays lighted huge bonfires, which brought the valorous fleet into plain 
view, making a scene "magnificent, but terrible." Finally at the end of 
several hours' constant fighting the fleet succeeded in getting past the 
batteries and out of range of the murderous fire, with the loss of one of 
the transports and half of the coal barges. 

The advance of Grant's army under command of McClernard reached 
New Carthage April 6, after wading most of the way along mired roads. 
These roads and numerous bridges had to be constructed by the engineers 
in order to bring up the wagons with the supplies. 

Pushing on ten miles further south, making the whole distance marched 
through this swampy country forty .miles, McClernard reached the place 
selected to cross to the east side of the Mississippi. It was very appropriately 
named Hard Times, and directly opposite was a fortified place called Grand 
Gulf, past which the fleet was compelled to run. By the use of the ti'ans- 
ports in Porter's fleet, McClernard's corps was gotten across the river on 
the 29th, landing a few miles below Grand Gulf at a point called Bruinsburg. 

General W. T. Sherman, still above at the starting place, was ordered 
by Grant to make a diversion by moving his corps up the Yazoo, threp,tening 
an attack on Haines' Bluff. This feint had the desired result of keeping 
the Grays under Generals Pemberton and Johnston engaged, and thus pre- 
venting their sending aid to the smaller force at Grand Gulf. 

On April 30 Grant completed his audacious movement and had his army 
of thirty-three thousand in the enemy's country, but with Vicksburg between 
his forces and his base of supplies. 

Some small force of Grays under Bowen came out of Grand Gulf in an 
endeavor to check the Blues' kdvance northward, but their numbers were 
not sufficient to cope with Grant's entire army, and after a short, but gallant 
flght, they were forced to retire to Vicksburg. 

The Blues then occupied the desei^ted Fort Gibson, restored a burned 
bridge, and rested a week waiting for the teams to catch up. 

About this time Colonel Grierson, with some one thousand Blue Cavalry, 
completed his arduous ride through the enemy's country, extending from 
Memphis, Tenn., to Baton Rouge. La. 

In sixteen days his force traversed six hundred miles, and not only 
destroyed large quantities of supplies, miles of railroads and many bridges, 
but kept the Grays from interfering with Grant's advance. 

Grant's army kept now pushing northward through a rough, hilly 
country, of which he says: "It stand on edge, as it were," the roads running 
along high ridges between which were deep ravines of heavy impenetrable 
forests. General Johnston, who was at Tallahoma, Tennessee, learning of 
Grant's movements, collected all the available troops and hastened to the aid 
of Pemberton, who was at Vicksburg, three hundred miles southwest. This 
was the General Joseph E. Johnston who was severely wounded on the 
Chickahominy River when he made the attack on McClellan's forces in the 
spring of 1862, and who, having recovered, had been transferred to the West 
in December, 1862, to oppose Grant. 

In the meantime, Grant forced his way to Jackson, Miss., which was fifty 
miles east of Vicksburg, at a junction of several important railroads, and 
to thwart the union of Johnston and Pemiberton he hurried McPhe^son'^ 



82 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 



corps to intervene, intending to get his whole army between both bodies 
of the Grays. * 

McPherson reached Clinton just west of Jackson and destroyed the rail- 
roads on May 13, where he was joined by Sherman's corps, which had only 
reached Hard Times a week before, after a march through the swampy 
Tensas country and the rough region of Mississippi. 

These corps meeting Johnston's Grays drove them eastward, and 
Sherman's corps entered and captured Jackson. 

Grant, learning that Johnston had ordered General Pemberton to 
evacuate Vicksburg and join him, determined to stop this union of the 
Grays' separated forces, and leaving Sherman to face Johnston, he turned 
west with the balance of his army to the attack of Pemberton. 

The foes met at Champion Hills about midway betwfeen Vicksburg and 
Jackson. Pemberton, in marching out of Vicksburg to meet Grant, had the 
intention of cutting off his base of supplies to the south, but Grant had 
abandoned that base and was energetically endeavoring to establish a new 
one to the north of Vicksburg, which he shortly afterwards succeeded in 
doing. 

In the battle of Champion Hills, Pemberton lost a lot of artillery and 
one of his generals, Tilghman, who was killed. 

After this defeat Pemberton fell back towards Vicksburg and concen- 
trated his forces on the Big Black River, twelve miles east of Vicksburg, 
at a strongly fortified post which, however, was carried by a gallant bayonet 
charge of the Blues Under General M. K. Lawler. Pemberton, burning the 
railroad bridge, abandoned the works, loosing eighteen pieces of artillery, 
and by nightfall his disordered command poured into the streets of Vicks- 
burg. Of this retreat of the Grays, Pemberton stated that it became a 
matter of "sauve que peut. The army which had gone forth from the town 
*to smite the enemy, was now a rushing, howling mob terrifying the citizens." 
The next day, Sherman having come up, his engineers erected a pontoon 
bridge and the whole army was gotten across the Big Black River. 

Up to this time Grant's army had in forty-six days marched one hun- 
dred and eighty miles; fought five battles, with continuous skirmishing daily; 
captured ninety guns, six thousand prisoners; prevented the union of John- 
ston's and Pemberton's forces, and compelled the latter to seek refuge behind 
the fortifications of Vicksburg. For most of the time his army lived on the 
country traversed, having at the start taken along but five days' rations. 

Communications were now opened with Porter's fleet, which had again 
run the fire of the Vicksburg batteries and was at the Yazoo River. Thus 
was established Grant's new ba.se of supplies to the north as he had planned. 
At noon. May 19, Vicksburg was invested by Grant's army, extending 
in a crescent fifteen miles long, with either flank resting on the Mississippi 
River. Further, defensive works were erected seven miles east of the 
besiegers to thwart any attempt of Johnston to raise the siege. 

A few days before Pemberton retired into Vicksburg, Johnston wrote 
him: "If Haines' Bluff be untenable, Vickburg is of no value; it cannot be 
held. If you are invested in it you must ultimately surrender. Instead of 
losing both places and troops, you must, if possible, save the troops. If not 
too late, evacuate Vicksburg and march northeast." It was too late, as 
Sherman says in his Memoirs, "I was gratified to enter Haines' Bluff," which 



THE CAMPAIGNS OP THE CIVIL WAR 83 

he had found impossible of capture the January before. Pemberton had 
seen that the evacuation of Vicksburg meant the loss of very valuable stores 
there, and would also cause the fall of Port Hudson, which was being 
attacked by Banks' Army of the Gulf, and would mean the surrender of the 
Mississippi River, the severance of the Confederacy, and the loss of their great 
storehouse of supplies, western Louisiana. These were the factors which 
influenced him in casting the die of the defense of Vicksburg. 

Porter's fleet now advanced up the Yazoo unmolested and destroyed the 
naval establishment on May 31. 

The War Department hurried South re-enforcements to Grant until 1 
army numbered seventy thousand. There were formed in entrenchments 
in the following order: McClernard's corps on the left, McPherson's at the 
centre, with Sherman's on the right. The Grays' opposing works, in many 
places not more than six hundred yards distant from the Blues, were manned 
by Baldwin on the left, Fitz Hugh Lee on the right, and Pemberton, with 
Smith and Farney, guarding the centre. 

The eight thousand fresh troops which had been stationed at Vicksburg 
during the preceding fighting added to the morale and encouragement of the 
Grays, and all went resolutely to the task of a determined defense, counting 
at the same time upon Johnston being able to raise the siege by attacking 
Grant's rear. This trust proved, however, to be visionary, for Johnston 
could not gather more than twenty thousand soldiers, most of them raw 
recruits, to attack Grant's defensive works to the east of his line. 

The first assault on the forts of Vicksburg was made on May 19, by a 
division led by General Blair of Sherman's wing in an attempt to carry a 
portion of the enemy's works. This failed in spite of gallant charges made 
by the Blues, who were repeatedly repulsed with fearful losses, the Grays 
firing down upon the chargers' explosive bullets, which inflicted barbarous 
wounds. 

On the 22nd, Grant again ordered a grand assault along the whole line, 
and a simultaneous bombardment by the fleet in front. One time during 
these frightful, but fruitless charges, Sherman's wing gained some ground 
for a short time, but it was soon dislodged under the terrific storm of shells 
and bullets against which no human being could stand. After the second 
failure Grant then set about the plan of a continuous siege until the enemy 
should be starved out. 

In spite of the incessant exchange of shots, the Blue and Gray boys 
during the arduous fifty-eight days of the siege did a great deal of 
fraternizing, yelling over the trenches to each other, exchanging jokes and 
jibes. Coffee was bartered by the Blues for tobacco. At many points the 
pickets would agree to cease firing, and enter into friendly conversations, 
after which they would return to their respective breastworks and take up 
the deadly sharpshooting at each other. 

The Southern historian, Pollard, gives the following graphic description 
of affairs in the lines of the Grays, which in fact was a counterpart of what 
was experienced by the Blues during that trying two months. "And now 
commenced a terrible task. Fort was erected against fort, and trench dug 
against trench, the enemy's sappers and miners, constructing their corridors 
and passages and pits, aimed a blazing fire of hostile musketry under the 
fierce rays of the summer sun. The Confederates confined to the narrow 



84 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL, WAR 

limits of their trenches, with their limbs cramped and swollen, never had by- 
day or night the slightest relief. They wefe exposed to burning suns, 
drenching rains, damp fog and heavy dews." 

Of the condition of the people in the city he recites: "The citizens, 
women and children, prepared caves in hills where they took refuge during 
the most incessant bombardment. The spirits of the troops were kept up 
by news received from Johnston's army by means of messengers who found 
a way through the swampy thickets of the Yazoo." Thus the exasperating 
siege dragged on, until, about July 1, Johnston arranged to make a diversion 
to the south of Grant's investing lines. On the 3rd a messenger was sent 
by him to Pemberton, informing that commander of the attempt at relief. 
This Pemberton never received, and on the next day, July 4, he surrendered. 

In Pemberton's official report he says that he selected the national 
holiday for capitulation to gratify the enemy's vanity. Grant and he were 
well known to each other, as they had served in the same division during 
the Mexican War. 

It was the deplorable condition of the populace at this time which 
caused Pemberton to surrender so early. Of the population of four thou- 
sand, including blacks, the greater portion was in hospitals, and progressive 
starvation had been threatening them for many days. 

A day or two before the surrender a mine was exploded by the Blues, 
which blew off the top of a hill whereon stood a fort manned by the Grays; 
by it a vast chasm was rent open and the force of the explosion threw several 
of the Confederates alive over into the Union lines. 

On that same day began the terrific battle of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania, 
where General Lee's invading army met defeat at the hands of General 
Meade's forces, a most despairing period indeed for the Southern cause, as 
four days after Pemberton's surrender, Port Hudson capitulated to General 
Banks. 

Two hours after Pemberton's surrender the National flag was hoisted 
by General Logan's division over the Vicksburg Courthouse, and Sherman 
was immediately despatched east to hunt up Johnston, for it was not Grant's 
character to stop to enjoy the fruits of one victory while the possibilities of 
another was near at hand. 

The garrison which surrendered numbered twenty-three thousand, with 
munitions enough to supply an army of sixty thousand. It occupied a week 
to parole the prisoners, and then they were marched out through the parade 
lines of the Blues without a word or cheer. Grant says: "Really, I believe 
there was a feeling of sadness just then in the breasts of the Union soldiers 
at seeing the dejection of their late antagonists;" and again he says in his 
Memoirs: "The news of the fall of Vicksburg with the victory at Gettysburg 
won by Meade the day before lifted a load of anxiety from the minds of the 
President and Cabinet and the loyal people at the North." 

On the same day of the surrender of Vicksburg, the Grays, ten thousand 
strong under General Holmes, attacked forty-five hundred Blues under 
Prentiss at Helena, Ark., but were defeated. This was the last attempt to 
raise Grant's siege of Vicksburg. 

Eggleston, in his history of the Confederacy, in commenting upon the 
momentous events, says: "After Vicksburg, the days of the dominance of 
Halleck and his kind were numbered, the time was approaching when 



THE CAMl'AIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 85 

capacity was to take command in place of regularity; when sense was to 
replace shoulder straps; when the man under the uniform was to count for 
more than the uniform. The Galena clerk, Ulysses S. Grant, was a few 
months hence to succeed to the command of all the armies of the United 
States, replacing the pet of an antiquated system. Two-thirds of a year 
were yet to lapse before this change in the administration of Federal military 
affairs should completely take place, but its coming was sure, and with It the 
end of a struggle which had already cost the country much of its best blood 
and untold millions of treasure." 

The fall of Vicksburg was immediately followed by the destruction of 
the Grays' fleet. A few days after came the capture of Port Hudson by 
Banks, the last stronghold of the Confederacy on the Mississippi River. 

The first merchant steamer, the Imperial, sailed down to New Orleans. 
At last, as President Lincoln said, "the Mississippi now flows unvexed from 
its source to the sea." 

A number of small encounters took place in the West during the sum- 
mer, in which hard fighting occurred and great gallantry displayed by both 
Blue and Gray. These were at outpo.sts where the Blue defenders had been 
reduced in numbers by Grant in gathering every available man to his army 
at Vicksburg. The most important of these struggles, at Milliken Bend and 
Fort Hinman, were intended by the Grays as menacing movements against 
Grant's siege. But nothing was accomplished in that direction by these 
heroic efforts of the Grays that influenced the final result. 

General Johnston, at the approach of Sherman after the fall of Vicks- 
burg, fell back with his meager and poorly organized force of twenty thou- 
sand to Jackson, Miss., where the Blues under Sherman sallied forth to assail 
him, whereupon he retired one hundred miles further east to Meridian in 
safety. 



86 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 



CHAPTER IX. 

The Gulf Campaigns, 1863. 



Enlistment of Negroes — Banks succeeds Butler — Failure of Expedition 
Against Galveston — Running the Port Hudson Batteries — Battle of Bisland — 
Irish Bend — Retreat Down the Teche — Siege of Port Hudson — Its Capture — 
Minor Engagements During the Siege — Cox's Plantation — The Writer's Per- 
sonal Experiences — A Poker Game Under Fire — The Texas Campaign — 
Sabine Pass — Brazos, Santiago^ — Re-enlistment of 90th New York Regiment. 

We left at the end of 1862 the Confederate forces in Louisiana under 
General Richard Taylor, occupying the Teche Country, and the Union troops 
under General Weitzel in control of the La Fourche, with headquarters at 
Thibodeaux. 

Near the end of 1862 the whole of Louisiana lying west of the Mis- 
sissippi River, except the delta parishes of Plaquemine and Terra Bonne, was 
formed into a military district called La Fourche, and General Weitzel was 
put in comimand of it. General Butler, with headquarters at New Orleans, 
organized the 1st and 2nd Louisiana Regiments of Infantry, and three troops 
of cavalry, enlisted from the white loyal citizens of the State. He also 
organized three regiments of negroes, calling them 1st, 2nd and 3rd La 
Native guards. He did this on his own account, and, while the act was not 
sanctioned by the Administration, still it was not interfered with. These, 
the first negro troops mustered into the service, were composed, not of 
slaves, but of what was called at the South "the free men of color." At 
first their officers were also colored men, but this arrangement was soon 
found to be impracticable, and thereafter all commissioned officers of negro 
regiments were white. The formation of the colored troops created con- 
siderable feeling and dissension among the white troops — even General 
Weitzel, one of the most obedient officers in the service, got into a dispute 
with Butler on the matter, declaring he was unwilling to command such 
troops, but as Irwin, in his history of the 19th Army Corps, says, "and to 
reflect that in little more than two years he, (Weitzel), was destined to accept 
with alacrity the command of a whole army corps of black men and at last 
to ride in triumph at their head into the very capital of the Confederacy." 
This took place in April, 1865, after the evacuation of Richmond, while 
Grant's army was chasing Lee on the Appomattox River. 

The malarious climate of Louisiana depleted Butler's troops during 1862 
to the extent of some five thousand men, and the Government saw that 
prompt measures to strengthen the department would be necessary. There- 
fore, on November 8, 1862, General Nathaniel P. Banks, of Shenandoah 
Valley fame, was assigned to the command of the Department of the Gulf. 
This General had been injured at the battle of Richmountain while with 
Pope in the Army of Virginia; he was afterwards placed in charge of the 
defenses of Washington, and accomplished the tasks of clearing that city of 
thousands of stragglers, and of organizing proper provisions for the care of 
the thousands of sick and wounded and making the capital safe, for which 
services he received the personal thanks of President Lincoln. 



THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 87 

The new troops to accompany Banks were placed under the command 
of General William Hemsley Emory. These new forces consisted of thirty- 
nine regiments of infantry, six batteries of artillery, and one battalion of 
cavalry; twenty-one of these regiments, however, were composed of men 
enlisted to serve only nine months. They were sent from Fortress Monroe, 
Va., in a fleet of transports under escort of the warship Augusta, as it was 
known that the Confederate privateers, Alabama and Florida, were in the 
Gulf of Mexico. In fact. Captain Semmes of the Alahama knew of the sailing 
of the fleet of transports, and lay about Galveston, Texas, (where he had 
been informed the troops were destined to disembark), intending to destroy 
both ships and troops, but the fleet assembled instead at Ship Island, just 
east of the Delta of the Mississippi, and thus escaped the privateers. 

Banks relieved Butler December, 1862, receiving orders to bend all his 
energies to the opening up of the Mississippi River, in which it was important 
to capture Port Hudson and get into communication with Grant at Vicksburg. 
Immediately on his arrival he sent Curvier Grover with five thousand men 
under the escort of a portion of Farragut's fleet to attack Baton Rogue, but, 
the enemy withdrawing, the Federals occupied that city without resistance. 
Grover took the precaution to strengthen the defenses, as only a day's march 
from Baton Rouge, that is at Port Hudson, lay twelve thousand Confederates 
under General Frank Gardner. 

In order to protect the Union people, and, if possible, to raise recruits, 
Banks, on December 24, 1862, sent a small force under Colonel Burrel to 
Galveston, Texas, but this expedition got only as far as landing on a pier, 
when it was attacked both by land and water forces, and was compelled 
to surrender. A number of the gunboats which had accompanied him were 
lost. Four, however, got safely away, on one of which was General Andrew 
J. Hamilton, the intended Military Governor of Texas, and his staff. 

It was not until the middle of February that the last of the troops 
assigned to Banks arrived, and the formation of the 19th Army Corps was 
completed, by organizing four divisions under Christopher C. Auger, Thomas 
W. Sherman, Emory and Grover, respectively. Each division had a battery, 
and the whole force numbered about twenty-five thousand men, but the 
regiments were badly equipped. 

About this time Grant was at Milliken's Bend preparing for the second 
attack on Vicksburg. Banks was to co-operate with him, but at the time 
of the formation of the 19th Corps, there were no means of communication 
between thes3 generals, and of course neither knew of the other's plans. 
As has been noted. Banks had been instructed to bend all his energies to the 
capture of the .stronghold on the Mississippi called Port Hudson, which lies 
two hundred and fifty miles south of Vicksburg, and one hundred and thirty- 
five north of New Orleans. That portion of the Mississippi lying between these 
two fortified positions was the only one in the control of the Confederates, the 
rest of the course, both north and south, being open. Port Hudson at that 
time was manned by sixteen thousand Grays in very strong fortifications. Late 
in January Admiral Porter sent a portion of his fleet to run the Vicksburg 
batteries. One of the boats, the Queen of the West, got through and destroyed 
several Confederate supply boats; then, running up the Red River, it de- 
stroyed more of the same kind, and finally got safely back to Vicksburg. 
Again, on February 5, the Queen of the West made a second run over the 



THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 



same course, but this time she did not get bacl^ for she was so badly disabled 
by the fire of the guns from Fort De Russy, on the Red River, that she was 
abandoned there by her crew. The Confederates, however, got her in com- 
mission again, and with another gunboat, the Wehl), attacked and sank the 
United States warship Indianola, on February 24. Thus the Confederates were 
in possession of this reach of the river, but Farragut got after them, and, on 
the night of March 14, for the fourth time attempted to run the batteries of 
Port Hudson. This time three of his vessels were disabled and forced to retire; 
one the Mississippi, was blown up. Farragut, aboard of the flagship Hartford, 
which was lashed to the side of the Albatross, alone succeeded in passing the 
batteries, and the next day he delivered a letter from Banks to Grant. Banks 
had intended to follow with Farragut's fleet, but it was found impracticable. 

Learning that the Confederates under General Richard Taylor were at Bis- 
land, a bend on the Teche, a short distance west of the junction of that bayou 
with the Atchafalaya River, Banks made preparations to attack these forces 
early in April at the very time Grant was vigorously pushing on in his Vicks- 
burg campaign. He sent ten thousand troops of the 19th Corps under com- 
mand of General Emory on the expedition up the Bayou Teche. 

At Fort Bisland, which was a simple breastwork on a bend in the Teche, 
a force of four thousand Grays, under command of General Alfred Moulton, 
which was defended by the gunboat Diana, awaited the approach of Emory. 

On April 13, as a portion of these troops reached Bisland, they met with an 
attack by Moulton's cavalry, which was followed by infantry, both of which they 
repulsed. The Blues then advanced to the attack through thickets of heavy 
willows and across deep ditches under a boiling hot sun, receiving in passing a 
galling enfilading fire from the gunboat Diana, but a well-directed shot from 
Weitzel's batteries, exploding in her engine-room, compelled Captain R. Arnold 
to take his ship up the bayou out of the fight. In the first charge a portion 
of the Blues, after a spirited fight, carried a part of the ramparts and captured 
nearly one hundred prisoners. At another part of the line a brisk encounter 
took place in impenetrable canebrakes, which was without results for either 
side. The next day the Grays retired. 

Emory's men, accompanied by the gunboat Clifton, followed the retreating 
Grays up the Teche, and, after some heavy skirmishing with their rear guards, 
entered without further opposition the town of Franklin. 

In the meantime the balance of Banks' army, under General Grover, were 
advancing, both by transports and roads, and on April 14 another clash occurred 
at Irish Bend. 

At the very beginning of an attack by the Blues, Colonel Edward L. Moli- 
nieux of the 159th New York was painfully wounded in the mouth just as he 
was giving the command "Forward." Desperate fighting lasted all day, in 
which the Diana, having been again repaired, took an important part. In the 
end the small force of Grays were compelled quickly to retire. They promptly 
burned the bridges, blew up the Diana, and set fire to all their transports ex- 
cept the hospital boat Cornie, filled with sick and wounded, which fell into the 
hands of the Blues. Captain Semmes, who but a day before had left his bat- 
tery to command the Diana, was taken prisoner by General Weitzel's men, but 
shortly afterwards cleverly escaped. Semmes afterwards commanded the fa- 
mous privateer Alabama. 

Banks, with a force of three times greater than that of his foe, hastened 



THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 89 

up the Teche, and on April 24, without resistance, reached Opelousas, about 
fifty miles nearly directly west of Port Hudson. Here on a vast prairie plain 
he held a grand review of liis army. Irwin says "the troops, not as yet inured 
to the long- and hard marches, were indeed greatly diminished in numbers by 
the unaccustomed toil and exposure, as well as by casualties of battle, and the 
enervating effects of the climate, yet they presented a fine appearance, and 
were in the best of spirits." 

About this time the Confederates brought the Queen of the West into Ber- 
wiclv Bay, intending to assist Taylor on the Teche, but three of the national 
gunboats attacking her and her consorts at long range, she was soon in flames 
and sank. So ended the career of that famous naval vessel which had done 
important service on both sides. 

Banks leaving Opelousas, forged ahead due north, unopposed, over the 
grassy prairies to Alexandria, on the Red River, where Porter's fleet was wait- 
ing and where he expected to meet the promised troops from Grant, but in this 
lie was disappointed, as Grant's army was then pushing on to Vicksburg, and 
not a man could be spared. 

Banks' army, on May 7, reached Alexandria, where he received a di-spatch 
from Halleck, at Washington, to give up his march northward, and return at 
once to the attack of Port Hudson, which lay about one hundred miles south- 
east of his position. After resting a week he then set out for Bayou Sara, on 
the east side of the Mississippi River, a short distance northwest of the strong- 
hold of Port Hudson. While the Blues were at Alexandria the Grays, under 
Generals Taylor and Kirl)y Smith, made a threatening demonstration, but 
Weitzel chased them back forty miles, after which the Grays concentrated 
at Shreveport, an important town on the Red River, about two hundred miles 
directly west of Vicksburg. 

In his movement northwesterly through Louisiana, Banks had gathered 
up a large number of beeves and horses and fugitive slaves, which had to 
be sent south to Brashear City. This unpleasant duty fell to Colonel Chicker- 
ing of the 114th New York, who, with a few regiments and Snow's section 
of Nim's battery, was to retire down the Teche with the booty. Reaching 
Barre's Landing, he was joined by the writer's regiment, the 90th Naw York, 
under Colonel Joseph S. Morgan, who, being senior in rank, assumed com- 
mand of Chickering's forces. Some Grays, seeing this detached small force 
guarding a train of spoils eight miles long, endeavored to intercept it at a 
bridge. A spirited and lively race ensued between the Blues and Grays 
under a boiling hot sun, through dense dusty roads, for everything in the 
shape of soil in Louisiana is entirely devoid of stones. The bridge was 
gained first after several hours' hard marching by the Blues, when a terrific 
rainstorm stopped further progress for the day. 

A march of over twenty miles during the next day in which man and 
beast suffered from the tropical heat, brought the train to the south side of 
the Town of Franklin with the Grays close on its rear. Just as the jaded 
troops were about to camp for supper, the Grays of General Thomas Green's 
command made a vicious attack, which necessitated a double-quick march 
back to the town to assist the assailed rear guard. Fighting was kept up 
for a while, in which Nim's battery poured shot after shot into the pretty 
town, when, fearing the loss of the train, Morgan ordered a hasty retreat. 

The train, as has been stated, was eight miles in length, and, besides 
the troops, consisted of a cumbersome and motley band of five thousand 



90 TH E CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 

negroes, tM'o thousand horses and fifteen hundred beeves. As Irwin says: 
"With the possible exception of the herd that set out to follow General 
Sherman's march through Georgia — which took place the next year — this 
was perhaps the most curious column ever put in motion since that which 
defiled after Noah into the ark." 

Without food or water this column pressed on throughout the entire 
night under a brilliant moon which kept the Grays informed of the move^ 
ments, so that during all night they kept hacking at the rear-guard. 

After a short rest for breakfast the weary troops reached Berwick the 
next day at noon. In the last thirty-one hours the command had covered 
forty-eight miles. On May 28, it crossed in safety to Brashear City, having 
been hotly pursued the whole time by the vigilant Grays. The train having 
been secured, the wearied troops the next day were hastened by transports to 
Port Hudson, and within another twenty-four hours they were under the 
cannonading, and fighting hard in the trenches with the main army. The 
surviving boys of the writer's regiment, who may happen to read the above 
account, will recall with deep interest those and the following strenuous days 
of army life. 

Returning to Banks' movements on to Port Hudson, we find that he 
met with but small opposition on his march to the Mississippi, and reached 
Point Coupee, and on May 22 crossed over the Mississippi to Bayou Sara, 
where, joined by Grover's division coming up from Baton Rouge, he imme- 
diately began passing around to the rear of Port Hudson. 

This strong hold was under command of General Frank Gardner, whose 
force had been depleted by repeated re-enforcements sent to Pemberton 
at Vicksburg until at this time he had but seven thousand to defend the 
citadel; according to attempts to advance Avith his smaller force to give 
battle to Banks at Bayou Sara was out of the question. He was, therefore, 
compelled to remain in his forts, and submit to a siege, with the hope of 
Taylor coming to his relief. 

On May 26, just one week after the investment of Vicksburg by General 
Grant, Banks began to draw a cordon with his ten thousand troops about 
the four and one-half miles of Port Hudson's entrenchments. In the river 
to the north and south of the fortified bluffs lay several ships and a mortar 
flotilla of Farragut's fleet, in one of which the now famous Admiral Dewey 
was serving. To prevent the Confederate garrison escaping west, a force 
of two regiments with a battery were stationed on the flats along the west 
bank of the river. The enemy never contemplated that move, however, but 
selected to stick to their guns, which they gallantly did to the end. The 
country inland of the town had, both by nature and the engineers been 
admirably laid out for an ideal defensive position. In the first place the 
region was a dense forest of luxuriant magnolia and liveoak trees of great 
size and beauty. The contour of the ground might be said to be cyclonicly 
varied in folds as if an earthquake had struck it, that is to say, along the 
four and one-half miles of the works starting at the river edge of the south, 
for the first quarter of a mile northward are ridges running about parallel 
to the forts, which a tourist would call picturesque, but which the 
investing engineers declared a curse. Further to the north extended beau- 
tiful cultivated cotton fields, and then the dense woods rolling up and down 
ridges and ravines terminated at the north end in an impassable swamp. 



THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 91 

Now came the engineer with his ax and felled nearly every one of those 
lovely magnolias for a width along the east of the forts of three hundred 
yards, leaving the massive trunks and branches lying in a tangled mass 
mixed up with the heavy growth of sturdy underbush, forming what is 
technically called an abatis. On this beautiful May morning- a portion of 
Banks' force under General Weitzel appeared at the edge of the forest near 
the north end of the works, and attacking the outposts, succeeded in driving 
them back into their forts, after which he very prudently withdrew into the 
veil of the forest to await the arrival of the main army. Banks' cordon 
of about seven miles in length was perfected late that night, when he issued 
an order "that Port Hudson must be taken to-morrow." 

At break of day the ships and the army artillery began furiously to pound 
the stronghold with shot and shell for some hours, and then ceased, when the 
troops were ordered to attack, which at the beginning was mainly done on the 
right and centre, General Thomas W. Sherman, through some misunderstand- 
ing, not getting ahead until the afternoon. To assist the troops in passing the 
ditches, a squad of each regiment carried planks and bags filled with cotton. 

In the dense forest, regiments were never in view of each other, and as 
there were no roads, that prompt communication indispensable in a battle, was 
not obtainable. In the tangled mass of obstruction the movement of the charg- 
ing lines assumed the nature of "bushwhacking efforts." In several places along 
the fronts the troops gallantly reached within a few yards of the crest of the 
bluffs, on which, behind their entrenchments, the Confederates lay with mus- 
ketry and artillery waiting for a close range at the chargers; these opening a 
galling flre hurled the Blues down into the fallen timber. The men, not daring 
to expose themselves, hid until darkness came on, and to add the agony some 
of the abatis caught fire from the bursting shells. In trying to struggle through 
the entangled branches the men's clothes and equipment were nearly torn from 
their bodies, and many were shot down in the act of climbing the great trunks 
of the fallen trees. Despite the desperate fighting and carnage, no serious loss 
had occurred to the Confederates, yet the cost to the Union Army was the fear- 
ful one of two thousand. Irwin says, "The confidence of the troops in their 
commander was rudely shaken. It was long indeed before the men felt the 
same faith in themselves, and it is but the plain truth to say that their re- 
liance in the department commander never quite returned." 

When night came on the wuonded were searched for and brought to the 
overcrowded field hospitals under the big trees. The surgeons were inade- 
quately supplied with medical stores, and overworked to exhaustion. "To the 
hospitals came large numbers of men not too badly hurt to be able to walk, and 
to all the tired troops the whole night was rendered dismal to the last degree 
by the groans of their suffering comrades, mingled everywhere, the wounded 
with the well, the dying with the dead," says Irwin. 

Banks requested of Gardener a truce early the next morning to remove 
his dead and wounded from the underbrush; this was at first refused, but 
finally late in the afternoon Gardener yielded. This agonizing delay was 
terrible to the severely wounded men lying on the damp mould under the 
heavy logs and scorched by the blazing sun. 

The 19th Army Corps had every available man in the trenches, there 
being no reserves except a small body of cavalry at the rear watching the 
menacing Grays' movements from that direction. The writer's regiment. 



92 THE CAMPAIGNS OP THE CIVIL WAR 



with Chickering's former command, reached the front on the 30th, after 
their arduous march down the Teche. The 90th New York was assigned 
to Weitzel's division near the north end, or right of line, and its colonel, 
Joseph S. Morgan, was put in command of a brigade. Night and day the 
incessant fire of the artillery and musketry was kept up. The Grays' 
sharpshooters were so keen that it was certain death to expose even a finger. 
They got so accurate in their aim that, in spite of the screens of bushes 
placed in front of the guns, the cannoneers dared not load or fire, until 
finally iron plates were set up in front of the gunners for protection. In 
most cases along the line the forts of the Blue and Gray were as close as 
three hundred yards, and any time a man on either side exposed himself he 
was instantly detected and a shower of bullets sent at him. Even the fringe 
of bushes along ramparts was no protection, for the enemy, knowing that 
behind these lay the foe, kept a steady fire through the twigs, compelling 
the men, inost of whom were suffering from sickness that the surgeons were 
entirely unable to ameliorate, to stay low in the cramped sultry trenches. 

Irwin, in speaking of the condition of the men of the 19th Corps at this 
period, says: "One of the eight regiments from the Teche Country — the 16th 
New Hampshire — had suffered so severely druing its six weeks' confinement 
in the heart of the pestilential swamps that it was reduced to a mere 
skeleton, without strength either numerically or physically. It was easy to 
see that officers and men alike were suffering from some aggravated form 
of hepatic disorder due to malarial poison." 

The Confederates to the rear under General Logan were constantly 
hovering around and kept Grierson and his cavalry busy chasing them 
away. Once during the siege Logan gobbled up one thousand uniforms 
and other stores from a landing on the river outside of the lines. 

It was not many days before the batteries all along the front got good 
control of the Grays' forts, knocking out twelve of their heavy guns. Towards 
the end of the siege the Confederate batteries did not reply or fire as often 
as the Nationals, for it was necessary that they should save their short 
supply of ammunition. 

At midnight on the 10th of June, during a heavy rainfall, a feint 
attack was made by skirmishers of the Blues along the whole line for the 
purpose of feeling the enemy's position and bringing him out of his trenches, 
but it was a failure, attended by considerable loss. The 12th of June was 
selected by Banks for a joint bombardment by the army and navy. This 
was continued furiously for an hour, the shells falling into the Grays' works 
at the rate of one a second; "three of the defenders' heavy guns were 
dismounted during the day, yet they suffered little loss in men, for, long 
before this, nearly the whole garrison had accustomed themselves to take 
refuge in their caves and gopher holes at the first sound of the Union 
cannon, and to await its ces.sation as a signal to return to their posts at the 
parapets. They were not always so fortunate, however, for more than once 
it happened that three or four men were killed by the bursting of a single 
ghell." — Irwin. As soon as the bombardment was ended Banks demanded 
the immediate surrender of the place, but Gardener replied: "My 4uty 
requires me to defend this position, and, therefore, I decline to surrender." 
Arrangements were then begun at once for another grand assault along 
the whole line. 



THE CAMPAIGNS OP THE CIVIL WAR 93 

This took place during- a fearfully hot day, on June 14. The charges, 
the repulses, the carnage, the suffering, all were duplicates of the failure 
of the 27th of May. Irwin says: "The repulse of the day may be summed 
up as a bloody repulse; beholding the death and maiming of so many of 
the best and bravest of the officers and men, the repulse may be even termed 
a disaster. In the whole service of the 19th Army Corps darkness never 
shut in upon a gloomier field. Men went about their work in a silence 
stronger than words." The loss in killed, wounded and missing amounted 
to eighteen hundred and five, the one hundred and eighty missing as in 
the first assault were set down as killed, as no prisoners were taken. The 
writer's regiment, with General Weitzel, was a part of the line which got 
up to the parapet, and had this charging party been promptly supported, 
it would doubtless have scaled the ramparts and taken the fort. Yet there 
Is no question but that the defenders would have been promptly re-enforced 
and perhaps all hands captured. As it was, the 90th and 91st New York 
were hurled back under terrific fire down into the dismal forest of logs, and, 
like their comrades along the whole front, were compelled to stay under 
cover together, suffering from the intense tropical sun and perishing of 
thirst until dark, when all who were able to crawl or walk got out. In 
these two regiments thirty-seven per cent, of their number were shot, but 
the 8th New Hampshire, at another part of the line, lost fifty-six per cent. 
These grewsome figures give some idea of the carnage of that terrible assault 
along a sheet of flame seven miles long. To add to the suffering of the 
wounded lying in the bush. Banks could not bring himself to ask for a 
suspension of hostilities until the evening of the 16th for the relief of the 
suffering and the burial of the dead. But three days and two nights had 
already passed; most of the hurt and those, the most grievously, were 
already beyond the need of succor. The same thing had occurred with 
Grant at Vicksburg. After the 14th of June the siege progressed steadily 
without further attempt at assault, which was now deferred to the last 
resort. At four points a system of regular approaches by sappers and 
miners were begun, and labor was carried on at the trenches inces.santly 
night and day. Banks issued a call for one thousand volunteers to form 
a storming party, which was responded to almost immediately by willing 
bold men. 

The Grays under Logan and Taylor threatened the base and rear of 
the besiegers, gave Banks such concern and anxiety that he wrote to Wash- 
ington of the matter. At the end of June four thousand men had been lost, 
and there were over that number sick in the hospital. There being no 
reserves, every man was in the trenches "when the end came at last the 
effective force out.side of the cavalry, hardly exceeded eight thousand, while 
even of this small number every officer and man might well have gone on 
the sick report had not pride and duty held him to his post." — Irwin. "As 
the summer days drew out, the heat grew more intense, the brooks and 
springs and wells dried up, the creek between the lines lost itself in the 
pestilential swamp; the Mississippi River fell, exposing to the sun a wide 
margin of festering ooze. The mortality and sickness were enormous." 
The cavalry and artillery horses and wagon mules suffered for want of 
forage, and when the Grays under General Taylor on July 3 cut off supplies, 
these poor beasts were literally starving until the place fell, and it was 
not until a week after Taylor's blockade was raised and the supplies arrived 



94 THE CAMPAIGNS OP THE CIVIL WAR 

from Grant, that the stress was wholly relieved. At last, on July 7, the 
sappers and miners had finished their dicing. Each mine was charged 
with one thousand five hundred pounds of powder. The 9th had been 
chosen by Banks for the explosion of the mines and the dash of the "forlorn 
hope" storming party into the breach. 

Early that day the gunboat General Price came down the river with the 
grateful news that Vicksburg had surrendered to General Grant on July 4. 
Like a flash the news reached the regiments; their bands started up the 
"Star Spangled Banner," and cheer upon cheer went up from the weary 
troops. The news was thrown into the enemy's trenches, who called it "a 
daurned Yankee lie." The gunboats fired a national salute with shot and 
shell. The next day Gardener capitulated, and the tedious and terrible 
siege was over. The prisoners numbered six thousand three hundred and 
forty men; with them were captured nearly one hundred cannons. The 
men were paroled, but the Confederate Government, as in the case of Vicks- 
burg, declared the parole void, and the men were later on pressed into 
service. The officers, however, were retained as prisoners. The total loss 
of the 19th Corps during the forty days' siege was four thousand three 
hundred and sixty-three, or nearly one-half its number. The Confederate 
loss was said to be about one-quarter that of the National. 

Inside of the Confederate line an eye-witness tells of the condition of 
affairs there as follows: "All around Port Hudson there was not a square 
rod but bore some indisputable mark of the iron deluge that had passed 
over it. The earth was plowed up; trees might be seen with their bark 
completely shot off, and some, twice the bulk of a man's body, were fairly 
cut in two by the solid shot. The river fortifications were terribly effective, 
and might have resisted every attack, had they been impregnable elsewhere. 
Far down in the bowels of the lofty bluffs the garrison had dug recesses for 
their ammunition magazines." 

Caissons conveyed the ammunition to the troops along the trenches 
which transport was hazardous in the extreme. As an instance of this 
danger, it happened one day that a shell fired from a large mortar of the 
battery to which the writer was serving, hit one of these caissons. Its 
contests exploded and some of the iron missies flew over into the National 
lines and wounded some of his comrades. After the surrender, the writer, 
with John McGrande, of Hoboken, crawled over the abatis to the enemy's 
trenches, and the Grays there explained to him what occurred at the time 
of that wonderful shot. It seems that one of the caissons to which two 
mules were hitched stood near the edge of a bluff, a short distance back of 
the breast works. His informant said that the shell passed high over the 
men in the trenches, then, as it fell earthward, it passed very close to the 
side of the caisson overhanging the ravine, and just as it reached the level 
of the bluff it exploded, and in.stantly the caisson blew up, the exploding 
contents knocking it and the mules over and down into the deep ravine, while 
in the trenches a number of men were killed and wounded. "How many 
of you men were caught?" he asked; "for we saw that our shell and shot 
reached your breast works," and when told only two or three were hit he 
seemed thunderstruck. 

About midnight of the lovely clear night of July 8, the writer was 
chatting with the sergeant who had command of a regular army battery 
adjoining the mortar battery to which he was assigned. Both armies knew 



THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 95 

of the coming assault of the morrow, and, as if resting to gain vigor for 
the approaching fray, all was hushed and still. Suddenly, some two miles 
off to the left near the centre of the opposing lines of forts, rang out loud 
and clear in the still air a bugle call from the Confederate works. The 
sergeant, turning to the writer, said: "Do you know what that means?" "No — " 
"Well, that is the 'Truce Call,' which you never before heard. They are 
wisely going to surrender, and the boys won't have a chance to spring that 
mine they have been a month making." In a few moments a similar bugle 
call resounded from the Blues' side. Presently was seen two torches ap- 
proaching each other from either line. All the men then retired to their 
caves in the hills to fight the mosquitoes and other parasites, and sleep if 
possible. At daybreak the writer was awakened by loud cheers — an orderly 
came dashing down the lines on a white horse crying: "Stop firing, they have 
surrendered." Soon the Blue and Gray boys rushed over their parapets and 
down the slopes and mingled freely with each other fraternizing in the 
happiest manner, until orders came for all to return to the ranks. 

Irwin gives the following description of the surrender, which the writer 
was sadly unable to witness, as his regiment was immediately ordered to 
join Weitzel's division in an expedition to the attack of Taylor at Donald- 
sonville. 

"The ceremonies were simple and short. General Andrews was 
designated to receive the surrender, and at seven o'clock on the morning 
of the 9th, the column of occupation, composed of two regiments from each 
division, entered the sallyport, or gateway, on the Jackson road. The Con- 
federate troops were drawn up in line. Gardener at their head, every officer 
in his place, the right of the line rested on the edge of the open plain 
south of the railway station; the left extended towards the village. At 
the word "Ground Arms!" from their tired commander, followed by the 
command of execution from the bugle.s, every Confederate soldier bowed 
his head and laid his musket on the ground as a token of submission, 
while Gardener himself tendered his sword to Andrews, who, in a few com- 
plimentary words, waived its acceptance. At the same instant the Stars 
and Bars, the colors of the Confederacy, were hauled down from the flag- 
staff where they had so long waved in defiance; a detachment of sailors 
from the naval batteries sprang to the halyards and rapidly ran up the 
flag of the United States; the guns of Duryea's battery saluted the colors; 
the garrison filed off as prisoners of war, and all was over." 

During the entire siege of Port Hudson, the Grays under Taylor, Moulton 
and Logan had been doing all they could with their respective small 
forces to harrow Banks. One of their successful escapades was the 
capture of Brashear City on June 22 with munitions amounting to five 
million dollars' worth of property. Then followed the surrender of a 
small garrison of Blues at Bayou Ramos. Next a furious attack was 
made on the garrison at Donaldsonville, General Taylor's purpose being to use 
the fort for blockading the river and preventing supplies reaching 
Banks at Port Hudson, from New Orleans. This engagement 

brought about a sanguinary hand-to-hand fight, even brickbats being at 
one time hurled at the defenders, who returned the compliment with similar 
missiles, when finally the Grays withdrew. They then placed cannons along 
the banks of the river behind natural embankments at several places, and 



96 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 

were thus enabled to force Banks' supply ships to retire to New Orleans. 
After the surrender of Port Hudson, Farra^ut's fleet chased these menacing 
forces away, when at last, as Lincoln said, "The Mississippi flowed unvexed 
to the sea." 

At one time General Taylor so seriously threatened New Orleans that 
General Emory, who was in command there, begged Banks to raise the siege 
of Port Hudson and come to his assistance. But Banks answered that the 
gunboats would have to be depended upon to protect New Orleans, as he 
was determined to remain and capture the stronghold. It was, however, 
a close call, for had not Vicksburg surrendered to Grant as it did on July 4, 
Banks' efforts might have been a failure. 

When the Grays at Donaldsonville saw Weitzel's troops approaching on 
transports from Port Hudson, and thus threatening to flank their river bat- 
teries that during the siege had prevented supplies for Banks from moving 
north, they withdrew some six miles up the Bayou La Fourche. 

These forces of Grays were under the immediate command of General 
Green. 

Just as Weitzel started from Port Hudson he became so seriously ill 
that the surgeons ordered him north, which placed the command of the 
expedition under General Grover, and his own brigade, the 1st, fell to the 
command of Colonel J. S. Morgan of the 90th New York, the writer's 
regiment. 

On July 13, just a month after the fearfu-1 assault on Port Hudson, 
Grover's advance disembarked at Donaldsonville. One brigade under 
General Dudley was dispatched at once up along the west bank of the Bayou 
La Fourche, while Morgan's brigade moved parallel along the opposite bank. 
The halt was made at Cox's plantation, about four miles above Donaldson- 
ville, near night time. The Grays under General Green stood facing Morgan, 
and on the other side of the bayou Dudley was confronted by General Major. 

Irwin, in the "19th Army Corps," gives the following account of the 
fight which ensued the next afternoon: 

"Green took the initiative, and, favored by a narrow field of a rank 
growth of corn, dense thickets of willows and deep ditches, common to all 
sugar plantations in these lowlands, and his own superior knowledge of the 
country, he fell suddenly with his whole force upon the heads of Dudley's 
and Morgan's columns, and drove them in almost before they were aware 
of the presence in their front of anything more than the pickets. 

"Morgan handled his brigade badly, and soon got it, or suffered it to 
fall into a tangle whence it could extricate itself only by retiring. This 
Fairly exposed the flank of Dudley, who was making a good fight, but had 
already enough to do to take care of his front against the fierce onset of 
Green's Texans. The result of this bad management was, that the whole 
•?ommand was in effect clubbed and on both banks driven back a mile until 
Paine came to its support; then Grover rode out, and seeing what had hap- 
pened, drew in his whole force." 

With the risk of boring the reader, but for the benefit of the inembers 
of the old 90th New York, the writer cannot refrain from telling of two 
ludicrous events which he witnessed during this disgraceful affair. His 
regiment, the 90th New York, reached Cox's plantation the evening before, 
when he and a chum named Barnes, served during the night on the 



THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 97 

picket line. The next morning he joined his regiment, which was on the 
right of Morgan's line, stretched out along with the brigade on the fields 
at right angles with the bayou's high levee. During the forenoon Green's 
guns kept sending shells over the heads of the troops, but not being well 
aimed, did little harm. 

It must be noted that, just as the regiment started from New Orleans 
for Port Hudson, the men were paid off, and, having had no chance to 
spend any money during the forty days' siege, all had their pockets full of 
"greenbacks." The regiment about noon stacked arms and all lay around 
resting, awaiting whatever might turn up. A little in advance of the line 
of the stacked muskets the writer noticed five of his company sitting on 
the grass gambling at "straight poker" — among them he refnemberE wcro 
Drummer Murray, Frank Foley and Frank Tinelli, the latter two from 
Hoboken. Just as he and Sergeant Wolff were abou*' to step over to 
watch the gamblers, a shell burst right over the heads of the group 
of players, the concussion knocking down both Wolff and the 
writer, and when the smoke and dust of the explosion cleared away, 
there were seen all five of the players stretched prone upon their stomachs 
in every direction, except Drummer Murray, whose right hand was grasp- 
ing the "pot" or stake of money. Curiously, not a man had been hit, and 
when all got to their senses, there was a great laugh on Murray. Wolff 
exclaimed, "Murray's greedy act is another illustration of 'the ruling passion 
strong in death.' " In the next instant all was in uproar; the enemy in the 
hollow away round to the left could be plainly seen fighting and capturing 
the whole picket line, half a mile away. The shells now came — fast and 
furious — ^they had got the aim right — the men rushed to their guns and 
formed line of battle. Just then there was heard a noise and great com- 
motion in the rear of the 90th Regiment, and, coming from that perilous 
direction, it caused all hands to turn, expecting to find the enemy in the 
rear. It was not the foe, however, but a big mule — the uproar was caused 
by the negro cooks of Company C attempting to strap upon his back the hot 
kettles in which they had been boiling beef. The big animal did just what any 
sensible mule would do, when the temperature of its hide is raised to the 
boiling point. He kicked the kettles well to the front, and then dashed to 
the rear along the road right through the regimental band and smashed over 
half of their treasured musical instruments, and as the boys said, "he is still 
going strong." This all took but a minute or so. Instantly the line was busy 
firing at the approaching Grays, as they came charging over the fields and 
through the willow thickets along the bayou road. The noise of battle was 
heard from the other side of the bayou where the fight was going on, also hot 
and furious. Suddenly orders were given by Morgan to change front and line 
up along the road with backs against the levee; which was done on the rush — 
that was the tangle which Irwin says Morgan got the brigade into and which 
caused the disaster, for now only the thin edge of the right flank was opposed 
to the charging Grays. The writer was at this flank, and while firing at visible 
and invisible foe, he could not help at one time, while plugging home a cartridge 
with his ramrod, notice the gallant manoeuvre of a group of not more than 
twenty Blue cavalry, who, dashing forward into the field, directly opposite 
him, and deploying on the gallop in a circle, delivered their fire on the charg- 
ing Grays, and then dashed back to safety. The yell of the chargers were now 
close; two or three of them dashed forward out of the thicket in the road at the 



98 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 



exposed flank on the right, not more than fifty yards distant. Instinctively the 
writer and his comrade, Allen, aimed and fired simultaneously, felling the most 
ativanced Gray. Then were seen other Grays coming from the left, and sud- 
denly there was heard a piercing yell from the rear, "retreat quick!" Horror! 
Company C was there alone; the rest of the command had retreated and were 
off in the high cornfields out of sight. It was the isolated position of the com- 
pany which the Grays had observed, and dashing on, they were determined to 
capture it; as it was a number were shot and some surrendered. 

The writer rushed for the cornfield. Did he run? Well, yes; he flew over 
the deep ditches between the furrows of corn, although it seemed to him he was 
hardly walking. Did you ever have the nightmare and dream that you were 
-being pursued by some savage animal and yet could not move a limb? — well, 
that was the writer's sensation, only worse. For a second the question arose — 
which way? when luckily he discerned some distance off the regimental flag 
flying just above the corn, and, through what seemed a hailstorm of screech- 
ing bullets, which kept clipping the cornstalks about him, he reached the flag, 
which was planted in a vegetable garden, where the regiment had concluded to 
halt and make a stand, and fell exhausted into a bed of beets. 

Again he saw the same group of cavalry charging and fighting like heroes 
off to the left in the open field. 

A few moments afterwards all got quiet — the battle was over — Oh, for a 
drink! Then came a reaction; the physical exertion had been painful, but now 
The mental anguish was awful. Pride had had a fall. Licked! Ran like cow- 
ards! What will the other brigades say of the First Brigade? The events 
narrated certainly did not occupy more than an hour, during which the loss to 
Grover's command was flfty-six killed, two hundred and seventeen wounded, 
and two hundred prisoners, or five hundred in all, with two cannons of Dud- 
ley's brigade. The Ninetieth New York lost over one-third of its number. 

The following day, after a cold, rainy night, a truce was arranged to enable 
the Blues to bury their dead. The body of the writer's chum, Barnes, who 
served with him on the picket on the night of the 13th, was found with two 
bullet holes, a deep sabre cut on the hand and the cruel prints of a horses hoof 
on the forehead. His other chum, Leander Monroe, was missing. He had beet, 
one of the pickets who were captured at the onset, but a month or so after- 
wards he was exchanged and returned seriously sick. 

The splendid band of which the boys were fondly proud played no more 
and on the heads of Corporal Blaney. who was in charge of the cooking, and 
his stupid negroes were heaped the imprecations of not only the members of 
the regiment, but also of the whole brigade, who had so often enjoyed the 
melodious strains of the now defunct band. 

The Grays, under Taylor, after hearing of the surrender of Port Hudson, 
retired up the Teche, carrying with them the immense booty that they had se- 
cured at Brashear City. Banks at first intended to follow them up, but, there 
being no gunboat at hand to assist and the weather getting hotter and hotter, 
he ordered his fagged-out command into summer quarters for rest and reor- 
ganization. Colonel Morgan went North, and, the numbers of the 90th being 
so depleted, it lost its rank of regiment, and through the remaining two years 
and a half service was designated as a battalion. 

On July 25, Grant sent Banks the 13th Corps, numbering about fourteen 
thousand, under command of General Washburn, the proper commander. Gen- 



THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL. WAR 99 

eral Orel, being sick in hospital. These forces were to replace depletion made 
by several regiments of "nine months' men," whose time of service had ex- 
pired. By the end of August the Department of the Gulf numbered thirty- 
seven thousand troops. 

Up to this period no serious attempts of invading Texas had been under- 
taken by the National Government; but now events in Europe of a very menac- 
ing character made it necessary to get a foothold there. 

This was occasioned by the efforts of Emperor Napoleon III. of France, to 
establish "a Latin Empire, to be built upon the ruins of Mexican liberty," and 
to gobble up a portion of Louisiana. The French troops on June 10, 1863, 
marching into the capital of Mexico, "vamped up a sham throne and upon it 
set the unfortunate Austrian puppet, Maximilian," whu later on was abandoned 
by Napoleon and assassinated by the Mexicans. Thus was ended Napoleon's 
I ash venture in interfering in the great struggle between the North and South, 
which had been brought about, no doubt, by victories of the National forces 
during the summer at Gettysburg, Vicksburg and Port Hudson. 

Early in September, Banks dispatched an expedition of troops in trans- 
ports under Generals Weitzel and Franklin with gunboats to capture Sabine 
Pass, which was guarded by a small sandwork named Fort Griffin, manned 
by only two hundred and fifty Grays under command of Captain F. H. Odium, 
and including a battery under Richard W. Dowling, together with the gun- 
boat Ben. The Blues' plan of assault was to have their gunboats engage 
the fort, while the troops made a landing. At the onset of the fleet two of 
the gunboats were almost immediately crippled and got aground by the well- 
aimed shots of Bowling's cannoneers. The effort to land the troops was 
abandoned, and the expedition returned to New Orleans in sorry plight, 
having lost over one hundred men, two hundred inules and two thousand 
rations thrown into the sea. 

In the latter part of October, Banks organized another Texas expedition 
of four thousand troops for the capture of the Rio Grande River. After 
long delays, and great peril from heavy seas and weather, the expedition 
landed at Brazos Santiago, November 4, and on the 6th captured Browns- 
ville, some thirty miles up the Rio Grande from its mouth. As Irwin says: 
"Banks now set about occupying successively all the passes or inlets that 
connect the Gulf of Mexico with the land-locked lagoons or sounds of the 
Texas coast from the Rio Grande to Sabine, and by the end of December 
had taken possession of the fringe of the coast as far east and north as 
Matagorda Bay. So far he had met with little opposition, the Confederate 
force in this part of Texas being small. The Brazos and Galveston were 
still to be gained, and here, if anywhere in Texas, a vigorous resistance was 
to be counted on. Banks was bending everything to the attempt when, as 
the New Year opened, the government stopped him and turned his head in 
a new direction." 

On the 16th of November a small force of the Thirteenth Corps under 
General Washburn took a battery commanding Aransas Pass, which was 
soon followed by the capture of Fort Esperanzo at Matagorda Bay. 

Banks then put his command into winter quarters, and so ended the 
campaign of the Department of the Gulf of the year 18 63. 

During the time the army was in winter quarters the Government made 
a call on the "three years regiments" whose time would expire within a few 



100 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 

months, to re-enlist for another term of three years. The writer's regiment, 
90th New York, was at this time scattered by companies for eighty miles 
along the stations of the Opelousas and New Orleans railroad. It was the 
oldest regiment, having been mustered into service in November, 1861, and 
had but eight months more to serve. Under the inspiring influence of the 
victories of the past summer and fall, and learning that U. S. Grant was to 
be made commander-in-chief of the National forces, every man was imbued 
with confidence that another year or so must restore the Union. They 
realized that with the opening of spring weather strenuous work would 
be required of them; they still had eight months to serve; why not re-enlist 
and finish the fighting? was argued. Further, as an inducement to enter 
for another three years the following bounties were offered; four hundred 
dollars from the United States, three hundred dollars from the County and 
seventy-five dollars from the State of New York, besides which each man 
was to receive thirty days furlough at New York. The time of the furlough 
could not be definitely fixed, however, but it was promised the men as soon 
as it could be safely arranged. The writer, with nearly the whole regiment, 
and in fact about all of the other "three years regiments," responded to the 
call, and in this way the Government secured the services of the trained 
veterans. On February 19, 1864, the 90th New York was mustered out of 
its first term of service and immediately mustered into its second, receiving 
the title of the "90th New York State Veteran Volunteers." It was finally 
discharged from the service February 9, 1866, remaining, as we shall learn, 
nearly all this time in the 19th Army Corps, making a service in the army 
of four years and three months. 

Up to the time of its re-enlistment the 90th New York had suffered 
severe lo.sses. Starting from New York in the latter part of 1861, with one 
thousand strong, it numbered scarcely more than a quarter of its original 
force. The depletions had been caused by the loss, at Key West and Dry 
Tortugas, Florida, in the early months of 1862, of nearly two hundred deaths 
from yellow fever, and by many score of discharges because of incapacity 
resulting from the dreadful scourge. At one time of the epidemic the sick 
list was so full that there were not sufficient men well to bury the dead, and 
at one stage of the illness the dead were buried at sea, there being no time 
or men to hack out graves in the hard coral formation of which Key West 
is composed. This great loss, together with the killed, wounded and missing 
resulting from the campaign with the Department of the Gulf, brought the 
numbers of the regiment fit for duty at the beginning of 18 63, to not more 
than two hundred. 



THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL. WAR 101 

CHAPTER X. 

Campaigns of the Army of the Potomac, Chancellorsville 
to Gettysburg, 1863. 

Chancellorsville — Death o^' Stonewall Jackson — Lee Invades the North 
— Brandy Station — Winchester — Mead Succeeds Hooker — Gettysburg — Re- 
treat of Lee — Minor Engagements. 

Having recounted the campaigns of Grant's and Banks' armies in the 
Mississippi Valley, we must now go back and review the movements of the 
armies in Virginia which had taken place in the interim. 

The disastrous campaign of the Army of the Potomac under General 
Burnside in 18 62, which resulted in defeat at the battle of Fredericksburg, 
left the Blues in that department considerably disorganized. To make mat- 
ters worse, a large number of the officers and men very much disapproved 
of President Lincoln's proclamation of Emancipation, claiming that that 
action on the part of the Administration was not only unconstitutional, but 
was unfair to the soldiers since it had turned the object of the war on the 
part of the North from its avowed purpose of saving the Union, the cause 
for which they had enlisted, to that of freeing the slaves. This feeling 
among the troops was so intense, that during the army's stay in winter 
quarters a great many deserted the ranks. Lincoln's view was that emanci- 
pation was a military measure necessary to save the Union. 

General Hooker was appointed on January 26, 1863, to succeed Burn- 
side. He was confronted with the severe task of getting order out of chaos. 
At this time eighty thousand of the Army of the Potomac were absent, 
and the term of some forty thousand men who had enlisted for nine months ' 
and also two years was about to expire within a few months. Nevertheless, 
in early spring, Hooker had completed his organization of one hundred 
and twenty thousand men with four hundred guns, divided into seven army 
corps, respectively, commanded by Generals John F. Reynolds, D. W. Couch, 
Daniel E. Sickles, George G. Meade, John Sedgwick, Oliver O. Howard and 
Henry W. Slocum, with twelve thousand cavalry under Stoneman. 

The map of the Rappahannock and Rapidan rivers in the region of 
Hooker's campaign of Chancellorsville, Virginia, resembles somewhat a 
tuning fork lying east and west. At the eastern end of the handle lies 
Fredericksburg on the south side of the Rappahannock River, which tends 
upward and westward along the handle about twelve miles to the fork, where 
the Rapidan joins it near United States Ford. The northerly prong is the 
Rappahannock, while the Rapidan forms the southerly one. Chancellors- 
ville, the site of the main battle, is a few miles almost directly south of the 
United States Ford. North of the site and lying to the south of the Rapidan 
is the famous Wilderness of entangled dense forests and ravines. 

Early in April, Lee's force of sixty thousand occupied the fortifications 
on St. Marye's Heights to the south of Fredericksburg. Hooker's army of 
one hundred and twenty thousand was at Falmouth, a few miles to the 
northwest. 

Perhaps no campaign of the war has been the subject of such con- 
troversy, so much literature and mystery, as that of Chancellorsville. 



102 THE CAMPAIGNS OP THE CIVIL WAR 

With an army twice as large as his adversary's, Hooker started to carry 
out a brilliant plan which, in conformity with the ordinary rules and fortunes 
of war, should have resulted In the destruction or capture of his foe. But, 
according to an old saying, "war is a hazard of possibilities, probabilities, 
luck and ill-luck." 

In brief, the plan comprehended sending General Sedgwick with thirty 
thousand troops acro.ss the Rappahannock at Fredericksburg to turn Lee's 
right, and, in connection with these troops, Stoneman with twelve thousand 
well equipped cavalry to push rapidly around to Lee's rear and thus cut off 
the anticipated retreat towards Richmond. Hooker with the main army 
was to cross the fords of the Rappahannock and Rapidan; clear the Wilder- 
ness, and threaten Lee's retreat to the west, for it was reasoned that, these 
movements being successfully carried out, Lee would be forced to retire or 
give battle in the open against overwhelming numbers. 

But the first part of the plain tailed, for Stoneman, who started on his 
flanking movement on Ai>ril 13, was, on account of the high stage of the 
water in the Rappahannock, greatly delayed, and when a portion of his 
command got across the river they were vigorously attacked by General J. 
E. B. Stuart's cavalry and compelled to re-swim the flood. As the ford 
did not become pas.sable until two weeks later, it was then too late for 
Stoneman to act in conjunction with the general plan. 

Hooker with the main army, on April 27, began his movement to the 
west and south. Crossing the Rappahannock and Rapidan by the fords, and 
also by use of pontoons, he got his army without opposition east of the 
Wilderness in front of Chancellorsville. Lee, detecting the plan, and leaving 
eighty-five hundred troops under General Early at Fredericksburg to check 
Sedgwick, rapidly and unobserved brought the remainder of his army into 
a strongly fortified position south of Hooker. 

Some desultory fighting now took place, while Hooker advanced to 
improve -his poor position; then for some unexplained reason, instead of 
boldly taking the offensive and dashing at Lee with his superior numbers, he 
retired on the defensive to his original position. His line formed a horse- 
shoe, with the left or east wing towards Falmouth under Meade, Slocum in 
the centre convexed towards Lee, and the right wing under Howard. To 
the rear was the United States Ford, and a few miles further east Banks' 
Ford of the Rappahannock River. To the right and front of Howard was a 
dense forest, with numerous creeks and ravines, and Howard, supposing 
that Lee's main force lay still in the fortification east at Frede"icksburg 
menaced by Sedgwick, saw no reason why he should be molested. But Lee 
now made a most daring move. Dividing his army in the very face of a 
vastly superior force, he sent Stonewall Jackson on hurried marches a dis- 
tance of fifteen miles by obscured roads through forests and ravines quietly 
to get to the rear of the complacement Howard, while he personally remained 
to watch the enemy in his front. This movement to the northwest was, as 
usual, most expeditiously made by the alert Jackson. On May 2, Sickles' 
command, which formed Howard's extreme right, managed to capture a 
regiment of Grays who were screening Jackson's movements, and, although 
a part of Jackson's moving forces were observed, this was interpreted as 
Lee's retiring to Richmond. By five p. m. Jackson's force got well to the 
rear of Howards' right, and the surprise would have been complete had not 



THE CAMPAIGNS OP' THE CIVIL WAR 103 

the impetuous onrush of the Grays' charging line stampeded deer and other 
game in the woods, which rushing towards the Blues' line apprised them 
of the enemy's approach just as they were comfortably getting supper. 
Not having time to form, the Blues were driven panic-stricken from their 
camps. A few hundred cavalry and some artillery rallied and managed 
to stay the onrush of the Grays, at the same time doing great havoc to 
their charging lines. Night coming on closed the Grays' advance, but 
caused a sad and melancholic event for the Grays. 

It seems that Stonewall Jackson, who was well to the front reconnoitering 
for future plans, while riding back with his staff, was mistaken by his own 
men as the leader of some Blue cavalry, and they fired at the supposed 
enemy. Three balls struck Jackson. At the same moment the Blues 
charged, passing over Jackson's prostrate form, but were immediately 
forced back. Jackson's men then placed him upon a litter, when suddenly 
one of the litter carriers was shot and fell, causing the wounded Jackson 
to be thrown to the ground, where he was obliged to remain until the 
galling fire slackened. Finally he was taken to the hospital, where an 
arm was amputated. Eight days after, this well beloved leader, one of 
the South's greatest commanders, answered the last roll call, having fallen 
in the midst of triumph, being the hero of First Battle of Bull Run, 
Shenandoah, the Seven Day Fight, Second Battle of Bull Run, Harper's 
Ferry, Antietam, Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville. The name "Stone- 
wall" was a nickname he received at the First Bull Run when someone 
observing his command standing firm, said: "See Jackson standing there 
like a stone wall." His real name was Thomas Jonathan Jackson. A. P. 
Hill, who took Jackson's place, being soon afterwards wounded, was suc- 
ceeded by General J. E. B. Stuart. 

The Blues, under Alfred Pleasanton and David D. Birney, getting some 
forty guns in position, kept up the night attack, which caused considerable 
confusion in the rank of the Grays. During Jackson's movement to the 
enemy's right, Lee with his small force made demonstrations in front of 
Hooker by marching and countermarching, which kept that General guessing. 
During the night Hooker rearranged his lines, which he still kept in the 
horseshoe shape in front of the United States Ford on the Rappahannock 
River. The left faced east, and was under command of General Winfield S. 
Hancock, of Couch's Corps; Slocum held the centre facing south; Sickles, 
still in the extreme right facing west, occupied an important knoll called 
Hazel Grove, which placed him between Lee and Stuart. Lee saw that this 
eminence was the key to the Blues' position, for with his guns there he 
could enfilade Hooker's whole horseshoe. But his men did not have to win 
it by attack, for, unfortunately for the Blues, Hooker, seeming not to appre- 
ciate the importance of the position, ordered Sickles to retire, whereupon 
the Grays promptly grabbed the coveted Hazel Grove, and planted there 
some thirty guns. Lee's army was now stretched along some six miles, 
while Hooker's forces were massed behind entrenchments. 

The battle was renewed on Sunday, May 3, by the Grays at sunrise 
attacking Hooker's right under the watchword. "Charge and remember 
Jackson." Time and again their charging lines were checked and rolled 
back by the gallant Blues, who in turn were themselves repelled, both sides 
thus fighting back and forth over a field where were intermingled the dead 
and dying of friend and foe. Later, the dry leaves and brush catching 



104 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL. WAR 

fire, the helpless wounded and dead were all consumed. General Hooker 
wa.s knocked senseless by a falling timber of a' house which had been struck 
by a shell, and thereupon General Couch temporarily assumed command. 
Sickles, not receiving reinforcements and getting out of ammunition, now fell 
further back. 

The Grays' well placed guns at Hazel Grove began now to sweep the 
plains of Chancellorsville, causing great destruction in the ranks of the 
Blues. By ten o'clock a. m. Lafayette McLaw's division of the Grays joined 
Stuart, and together they pressed Daniel E. Sickles, French and Slocum 
back, and held the field while forty thousand under Meade, Reynolds and 
Howard stood idly by. 

In the meantime Sedgwick, in front of Fredericksburg confroiiting Early's 
small force of thirty thousand, pushed his way across the Rappahannock on 
the 4th, and carried St. Marye's Heights. The famous old stone wall that 
Burnside's braves failed to reach the year before was won at la.st, but at 
terrible cost. The charging brigade of General Shaler, (of Engle- 
wood, N. J.), was virtually "blown away by the heavy artillery fire. It 
staggered, reeled, and when at last it reached the wall, one thousand men 
had been lost in ten minutes." This success of Sedgwick was an anxious 
moment for Lee, as that connmander now .seriously threatened the Grays' 
right and rear. Lee then rushed Richard McLaw and Henry Anderson to 
the support of J. E. Early, and at evening Sedgwick's advance was checked 
at Salem, near Hooker's extreme left. 

Hooker now ordered a noiseless retreat of his v/hole army across the 
Rappahannock to its original position at Falmouth, which was accomplished 
in the night during a terrific rainstorm, and when Lee advanced to the 
attack the next morning he found his enemy had flown. 

This was another instance where Lincoln's Administration had failed 
to find a commander competent to direct the superb Army of the Potomac 
and to outmarch "Bobby Lee." The result of Hooker's cainpaign, says 
Eggleston, "cannot be ascribed to the superiority on the one side, or an 
inferiority on the other. The true cause of the Blues' defeat was that 
'General Lee was master in the great game of war.' " 

Stoneman's cavalry had managed to get within a few miles of Richmond, 
but beyond destroying railroads, easily repaired, nothing of importance was 
accomplished. Hooker's loss was put at seventeen thousand, Lee's at thir- 
teen thousand. 

At this date — the spring of 1863 — the whole North was thrown into the 
slough of despond. The splendid Army of the Potomac had been beaten 
again. Neither Grant nor Banks had yet succeeded in taking Vicksburg or 
Port Hudson. The Confederate cruisers were driving American commerce 
from the seas. The attack on Charleston had failed. Galveston, Texas, 
had fallen into the hands of the Grays. The Army of the Cumberland, 
under Rosecrans, lay inactive confronting Bragg in Tennessee. 

Lee now determined upon another sortie north with the object of carry- 
ing the war into the enemy's country. 

After the defeat of the Blues under General Hooker at Chancellorsville 
in May, the Confederate Administration strengthened General Lee's army to 
the number of one hundred and twenty thou.sand troops, and ordered him 
to push north and carry the war into the Free States. Probably at no 



THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL. WAR 105 

other period of the war, had the Grays so well an equipped army as that which 
started under Lee from FredericksV)urg, Virginia, June 3, 1863, on its famous 
sortie into Maryland. On the other hand, the Army of the Potomac under 
General Hooker had been reduced not only by casualities of battle, but also 
by the discharging of many seasoned veterans whose terms of service had 
expired, so' that it now numbered but eighty thousand. 

Since, owing to disapproval of the Emancipation Proclamation, strenuous 
efforts were being made at this time in the North to bring about a cessation 
of hostilities, Lee's invasion, if successful, would have put the Confederacy 
in a position to exact favorable terms. Again at the North there arose 
bitter hositility against the drafting of citizens into the armies, which grew 
to such proportions that New York City was under mob rule for several days 
in the early part of July, coinpelling the Administration not only to call out 
all the State militia, but to send home New York troops from the front to 
quell the rioters. 

Leaving A. P. Hill, who had recovered from his wound, at Fredericks- 
burg to engage the attention of Hooker, Lee pushed on with the mass of his 
army northwest to Culpeper Court House, putting a splendid body of cavalry 
under Stuart in the advance. 

Hooker, detecting this menacing movement on Washington, sent his 
cavalry under Alfred Pleasanton to thwart the advance. These horsemen 
clashed at Brandy Station, where the Grays repelled the onslaught of the 
Blues. 

On June 13, Lee's advance under Ewell was in the Shenandoah Valley, 
when Hill was ordered to leave Fredericksburg and join the main army. 
Hooker now planned to advance and give Lee battle, but General-in-Chief 
Halleck, at Washington, fearing defeat of the Nationals, ordered a retire- 
ment of the Army of the Potomac to the protection of the capital. 

Reaching the Valley the Grays easily subdued a small force of seven 
thousand under Robert H. Milroy at Winchester, capturing four thousand, 
the balance escaping to Harper's Ferry. One wing of Lee's forces under 
Longstreet marched rapidly along the east side of the Blue Ridge Mountains, 
and finally his whole army crossed the Potomac River at Williamsport and 
Shepardstown on June 26. 

This movement threatened not only Harrisburg, Penn., but even Balti- 
more and Philadelphia, and threw the whole North into an uproar of panic, 
compelling Lincoln to call out the entire militia of the neighboring States. 

In the meantime Hooker had been moving northward parallel to Lee, 
and crossed the Potomac at Edwards' Ferry the same day that Lee got his 
army into Maryland. He thereupon requested that the eleven thousand 
troops at Harper's Perry be sent to augment his forces, but this the War 
Department refused to do, whereupon Hooker, in disgust, resigned as com- 
mander-in-chief. General Meade being appointed in his place. Harper's 
Ferry was promptly evacuated, and the eleven thousand troops then joined 
Meade. 

On June 28 Lee's forces were scattered throughout Pennsylvania, one 
part at Chambersburg, another at Carlisle, and still another at York, procur- 
ing their sustenance from the fertile fields of the farmers, and no small 
amount of treasure and supplies from the merchants of the helpless towns. 
These depredations were committed in direct violation of General Lee's 



106 THE CAMPAIGNS OP THE CIVIL WAR 

famous order No. 73, in which he admonished his troops at the very start of 
the campaign, "that we make war only upon armed men." 

The cavalry under Stuart, instead of keeping with Lee's main army, 
went prowling towards Washington. They followed Hooker, and, observing 
his crossing of the Potomac, passed around his advance and joined that part 
of Lee's army at Carlisle. This absence of the cavalry left Lee without 
that important arm upon which a commander depends for gathering news 
of the movements of his enemy. Meade on the other hand had his cavalry 
feeling about, and was in full knowledge of the whereabouts of the foe. At 
this time the strengths of the opposing forces were about equal, numbering 
some ninety thousand each. 

Lee pushed on towards Harrisburg, the capital of Pennsylvania, directly 
north of Frederick, in Maryland, the same town where a year ago he had 
harangued the populace prior to the battle of Antietam. He was several 
days in advance of Meade, exacting on the way supplies of food and clothing 
from the unprotected inhabitants of the country. 

As Draper says: "At this period the Richmond Government had hoped 
that, by the unresisted advance of Lee's army towards Philadelphia, and 
the promised rising of the rioters in New York and Boston, the National 
Government would be terror-stricken and li.sten to terms of peace and the 
separation of the South. President Davis even despatched Alexander H. 
Stephens, the Vice-Pre-sident, to seek an interview with Lincoln, but that 
mission proved abortive by reason of Lee's defeat at Gettysburg — later on." 

Meade advancing towards the passes in the South Mountains, that exten- 
sion of the Blue Ridge northward across the Potomac River, where the year 
before McClellan and Lee's boys had clashed and threatened to cut off the 
Grays' communication to the South. Lee thereupon concentrated his army 
on the east side of that range near a small town called Gettysburg, close to 
the southern boundary of Pennsylvania, and directly south of Harrisburg. 

Meade at the same time selected a strong defensive position at Pipe 
Creek some fifteen miles southeast of Gettysburg, his army occupying a line 
stretched from Manchester on the east to Emmettsburg on the west, just 
south of the northern boundary of Maryland. 

Gettysburg lies in a valley near a ridge which divides the watershed 
of the region, the streams flowing south emptying into the Potomac, and 
those taking a northerly course running into the Susquehanna River. 

To the north, close behind the town of Gettysburg, which nestles in a 
valley, is a range of hills that, after running west a short distance, take an 
abrupt turn and continue almost due south for several miles. This was 
Seminary Ridge, occupied by Lee's army. A mile or so directly south of 
the town is another ridge, called Cemetery Ridge, running also in a curved 
direction and parallel to Seminary Ridge. A little southeast of the town 
there is a ridge called Culp Hill, with Rock Creek flowing at its base. 
Between these two ridges lay a pleasant cultivated valley, a mile or more 
wide, where on that beautiful summer day, on which the battle occurred, 
herds of cattle were peacefully grazing. A few miles south of the town is 
a spur on Cemetery Ridge called Round Top, over four hundred feet in 
height, while a short distance to the north of this is another smaller 
prominence called Little Round Top. Behind the Cemetery Ridge to the 
east are rocky ledges and broken fields. It was on Cemetery Ridge that 
Meade's army was finally po.sted. 



THE CAMI'Ai aNS OF THE CIVIL, WAR 107 

Early in the morning of July 1, Hill and Heth's corps of Lee's army were 
advancing- eastward towards Gettysburg along the rear of the westerly slope 
of Seminary Ridge, when within two miles of the town they suddenly en- 
countered John Buford's cavalry, whom the Grays forced back into Gettys- 
burg, which was then occupied by John T. Reynolds' corps. Another 
engagement immediately took place, during which General Reynolds fell 
mortally wounded. General Abner Doubleday taking his place. About 
eleven a. m. the 11th Corps of the Blues under Howard arrived and 
established several batteries on Cemetery Hill, directly south of the town. 
At the beginning the fortunes of war were with the Blues, who captured 
General Archer, but Hill and Swell's corps coming up, in number fifty 
thousand, pushed the twenty-one thousand Blues pell-mell through the streets 
of Gettysburg up on to Cemetery Hill, with a loss of ten thousand men 
and sixteen guns. Lee, coming up in person, not knowing the strength of 
his enemy, called a halt to the assault of Cemetery Hill at four p. m., await- 
ing the arrival of Longstreet's corps. We now know that had he permitted his 
superior force to continue the assault of Cemetery Hill, the small detached 
force of Meade's army must surely have been overwhelmed. 

The news of Reynolds' defeat and death reached Meade some fifteen 
miles south at Pipe Creek about one o'clock. He immediately hurried 
General Hancock's corps forward to the support of Howard. Hancock, 
observing the important strong position afforded by Cemetery Ridge, advised 
Meade to hurry his whole army to its occupation, which was accomplished 
by the troops noiselessly marching all night under a full moon, all but 
Sedgwick's corps getting in position along the crest of the ridge before 
daybreak. The latter did not arrive until two p. m. 

Slocum was on the extremie right on Gulp Hill; to his left came Wads- 
worth; next curving around the bend was Howard, followed to the left by 
Hancock, Sickles and Sykes' corps ranged along the ridge to the left as far as 
Round Top. Sedgwick's and Reynolds' corps, the latter being now under 
General Newton, formed a reserve to the east of Round Top in such a 
position that a short march would bring them to the assistance of any part 
of the entrenched line along Cemetery Ridge that might be assaulted. 

Lee's army was also busy during the night getting alignment on 
Seminary Ridge, the thick woods along the crest and westerly slopes con- 
cealing its movements. Lee's line occupied "a vast crescent" Ave miles long. 
Longstreet held the right opposite Round Top on Cemetery Ridge, with Hill 
and Swell stretching north and east behind Gettysburg. 

Enthused by the success of the day before, the Grays were eager to 
finish up their half-beaten foe, but they did not know what the Blues had 
been doing during the night. 

General Meade intended to have his line continuous along the crest of the 
ridge, but General Sickles advanced down into the fields three-quarters of 
a mile, leaving between his forces and those of Hancock's a gap of a quarter 
of a mile. Meade, noticing the perilous position of Sickles, ordered him 
to withdraw on to the ridge. General John Bell Hood, who was at the 
extreme right of the Gray line, which extended somewhat south of the 
Blues' left, suddenly rushed his division forward to the capture of Little 
Round Top, which was the key to Meade's position, for with this in control 
of the Grays their batteries could rake the whole of the Blues' entrench- 
ment along the ridge. 



108 THE CAMPAIGNS OF TH E CIVIL WAR 

Of the importance of Little Round "i^p, Meade said himself: "If the 
enemy had taken Little Round Top I could not have held my line." The 
conflict between Hood and Vincent of Sickles' corps was desperate, but 
resulted in the Blues holding- the "Top." 

Longstreet, too, had seen Sickles' isolated situation, and, getting artillery 
into an enfilading position, he raked the ranks of the Blues, creating appalling 
havoc. Sickles himself being wounded and his whole command driven back 
on to the Ridge. One division under General Andrew A. Humphries, how- 
ever, happened to get isolated during the retreat, and received the full 
force of the attacking Grays, but, by skilful manoeuvering, he succeeded in 
getting his command up on to the main line, at the terrible loss, however, 
of one-half his numbers. 

Again and again Hood's Grays charged to the capture of Little Round 
Top, only in the end of the bloody struggles to be forced back into the 
wheat-fields in the valley, with General Hood severely wounded. 

Late in the afternoon, Ewell's Grays on the left, after a gallant assault, 
succeeded in getting a foothold in Slocum's entrenchment on Culp Hill, but 
the lost ground was recovered the next morning when at dawn General 
Gerry of the 12th Corps, after a desperate encounter, succeeded in driving 
Ewell's men back on to Seminary Ridge. 

Four hours during the afternoon the cannoneers of the Blue and Gray 
"kept the air alive with shots and shells," and darkness alone closed the 
fighting of the second day's struggle. 

Draper gives the following account of the last day: "On Friday, July 3, 
a day ever memorable in American history, the morning sky was covered 
with broken clouds, here and there at intervals the sunbeams fitfully gleam- 
ing between them. Pickett's division and Stuart's cavalry had joined Lee, 
who now prepared to attack the whole line of his foe, aiming to capture 
the low ridge occupied by Hancock near the centre, concentrating opposite 
this latter position nearly one hundred and fifty guns. With the exception 
of the fight in the early morning between Ewell and Gerry's men at Culp 
Hill all was quiet along the lines until one o'clock p. m., when suddenly 
the Grays' batteries belched forth, and the incessant cannonading of both 
armies across the narrow valley was kept up for over two hours." Of this 
artillery duel one of Hancock's Blues wrote: "We lay behind a slight rise 
of ground just sufficient to hide from the view of the enemy. It was awful 
hot, the sun smote down upon us. and we were all so close to the ground 
that not a breath of air could reach us." During this terrific cannonading 
"which filled the air with demoniacal noises, the ground seemed to reel as 
it from an earthquake, making a scene terrific but sublime." 

Seeing the impending assault by Lee's infantry, Henry J. Hunt, General 
Meade's Chief of Artillery, gave orders to the gunners to reserve their 
ammunition for the coming charge of the Grays. The Grays' terrible storm 
of iron had dismounted many of the Blues' guns, and killed their horses 
by the score, necessitating the urging forward from the rear other guns. 

While along the Grays' lines on Seminary Ridge hovered a dense smoke 
made by their artillery fire, the cannonading suddenly ceased, and the Grays 
prepared to assault Meade's fortified lines. Then ensued that memorable 
gallant charge of the Grays, one of the greatest infantry assaults ever 
witnessed in warfare. In order to prevent Meade reinforcing his left, Lee 



THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 109 

sent Stuart's cavalry around to the right and rear of SlAcum, but this move- 
ment was met and frustrated by Grigg's infantry and Custer's cavalry, 
which, after a desperate battle, forced Stuart to retreat. 

The Blues' cavalry under J. H. Kilpatrick then charged the Grays' 
right just before the famous assault l)y the Confederate General, George E. 
Pickett. 

It was three o'clock p. in., when out of the woods on Seminary Ridge 
Appeared to the wondering eyes of the entrenched Blues on Meade's left 
the Gray chargers, their line extending east well around towards the town 
of Gettysburg. It was Pickett's division of Longstreet's corps of Virginia 
Veterans, some five thousand strong, proceeding down the slopes in parade 
like procession, their front thickly covered with skirmishers. Then followed 
L. A. Kempler's and Garnett's brigades forming the first line, with Armistead 
in support. 

Pickett's veterans were flanked on their left by Heath's division of 
Hill's corps, commanded by I'ettigrew, and on their right by Wilcox's 
brigade of McLaw's corps, the whole line constituting a charging force of 
twenty thousand strong stretched out to the extent of two or more miles. 

The Southern historian, Pollard, relating the Grays' side of the action 
which followed, says: "The five thousand Virginians led the attack. As 
they reached the Emmettsburg Road at the foot of the slope, the Con- 
federate guns which had fired over their heads to cover the movement 
ceased, and there stood exposed these devoted troops to the uninterrupted fire 
of the enemy's batteries, while a fringe of musketry along a stone wall 
marked the further boundary of death to which they marched. No halt — 
no waver, through half a mile of shot and shell pre.ssed on this devoted 
column. It was no sudden impetus of excitement that carried them through 
this terrible ordeal; it was no thin storm of fire which a dash might pene- 
trate and divide. In every inch of air was the wing of death. Against 
the breast of each man's body reared the red crest of destruction." 

The fire from the one hundred guns on Cemetery Ridge tore vast gaps 
in the advancing ranks of the Grays. The charge was first directed against 
Doubleday's lines, but the hot fire from Round Top made the assaulting 
array bend towards its own left and thus brought the attack more on Han- 
cock's position. Two Blue regiments of Standard's brigade, who 
were in a grove in front oi tiancock's left at an angle with the main 
line gave the chargers an appaling flanking fire, while they were at the 
same instant subjected to the murderous shots of Hancock's cannon in front. 
This caused the line to sway .still more to the left, and brought the weight 
within three hundred yards of R. B. Hayes and Gibbons, it received the fire 
from these troops. That fire it returned. In front of Hayes it broke, and 
he captured fifteen colors and two thou.sand prisoners. The right of that 
portion of the Virginians before Gibbons was at the same time checked. 
It doubled in towards the left, thus reinforcing its centre, and throwing 
the point of contact in full force on Webb's brigade. About this time 
General Hancock, by the side of General Standard, was wounded. The 
Virginians were now in the very focus of the fire. Webb's brigade was 
posted in two lines, two of its regiments being behind a stone wall and 
breastworks, the third behind the crest sixty paces to the rear, so disposed 
as to be able to fire over the heads of those in front. As the smoke 



110 THE CAMPAIGNS OP THE CIVIL WAR 

enveloped the attacking mass, the last glimpses that were caught showed 
that it was reeling and breaking into fragments; but, though its organiza- 
tion was lost, the Virginians individually rushed forward. Coming out of 
the cloud that enclosed them, and headed by General Armistead, they 
touched at last the stone wall. The two regiments holding the wall fell 
back to the regiment in the rear; there they were reformed by the personal 
efforts of General Webb and his officers. 

Encouraged by the apparent retreat, the Virginians planted their battle 
flags on the wall, and pushed over the breastworks. A desperate hand to 
hand conflict now ensued, the clothes of the men being actually burned by 
the powder of the exploding cartridges, while the Blue cannoneers were 
clubbed and bayonetted at their guns. 

The shout of the victorious Grays as they went over the crest of the 
wall was heard by a group of breathless spectators on Seminary Ridge, 
who had been watching with intense interest and anxiety the inspiring 
spectacle. Longstreet turned to General Lee to congratulate him — the day 
was won. But, alas, in that same instant Lee saw the line wave and knew 
that Pickett was giving way. At that moment reinforcements were rushing 
to Webb from all sides. Men and officers were fighting together. 

Pickett's chargers at the wall were literally crushed. Of fifteen of 
their field officers only one remained unhurt. Pollard says: "Of their 
three brigade commanders Garnett was killed, Armistead mortally wounded 
and left on the field, and Kemper carried away to die. Companies and 
regiments of the Grays threw down their arms and, rushing over the 
battlements into the lines of their foe, gave themselves up in despair 
rather than attempt running the gauntlet of the murderous fire a second 
time in the strife to reach their base a mile to the rear." The Blues under 
Gibbons in this way captured twelve colors and twenty-five hundred 
prisoners." 

Continuing, Pollard tells us: "The flankers on the left of Pickett's 
charges, under Pettigrew, composed mostly of raw recruits, when ordered 
forward to the support of their battling comrades, became panic-stricken 
and fied, with hundreds taken prisoners. Of twenty-eight hundred but 
eight hundred and thirty-five remained. Wilcox's flankers on the right 
made a movement as if to renew the attack, but the raking fire of the Blues 
under Sykes hurled them back a full mile. So, also, McLaw's and Ewell's 
feints failed. A mass of the remains of Pickett's division fled back towards 
Seminary Ridge, its ranks diminished every instant by the relentlessly 
accurate aim of the Blue cannonaders." Such was the fate of that desperate 
attempt of the Grays against the entrenched Blues on Cemetery Ridge. 

The battle of Gettysburg was a drawn one, but the "dream of the 
passage of the Susquehanna River ended," and nothing now remained for 
Lee but to get the remainder of his gallant army back safely, if possible, 
into Virginia. The losses of the Blues were reported at twenty-three thou- 
sand one hundred and eighty-six, of which twenty-eight hundred and thirty- 
four were killed, and thirteen thousand seven hundred and thirty-six were 
wounded, with six thousand six hundred and forty-three taken prisoners. 
The losses of the Grays were thirty-six thousand, of which five thousand 
were killed and twenty-three thousand wounded. The Southern Pollard, in 
his "Lost Cause," in reciting the fearful carnage, says: "In Pickett's 



THE CAMPAIGNS OP THE CIVIL, WAR 111 

division alone, out of twenty-four regimental officers but two escaped hurt. 
The 9th Georgia, out of two hundred and fifty, came back with but thirty- 
eight, while the 8th Georgia rivalled even that ghastly record." 

Those seasoned veterans of the Blue and Gray who fought each other so 
unflinchingly in these series of engagements, were the same troops who had 
clashed during the seven days' battle on the Peninsular the year before, 
and again, at Antietam, Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville. Both were 
Americans, and by their endurance and valor astonished the world by a 
wonderful heroism never before displayed on any battlefield. 

Lee lingered in his preparations until July 5. when he started south- 
ward, retiring in perfect order with his supply trains, herds of cattle and 
horses and seven thousand prisoners. 

On reaching Hagerstown he found the rain had so swollen the Potomac 
River that it was impossible to make a crossing. He, therefore, en- 
trenched in anticipation of the impeding attack of Meade, but the Blues 
offered no battle. Finally, on the 12th, he crossed his entire army safely 
on pontoons in the very face of his enemy, and in the end reached his old 
headquarters on the Rapidan. Meade, who had been following, also took 
up the old position opposite on the Rappahannock. "He had spared the 
North the invasion, but had not conquered Lee." 

These were indeed despondent days for the Confederacy; within a few 
days of each other in that memorable July of 1863, three great disasters 
befell their armies. Vicksburg to Grant, Port Hudson to Banks, and 
Gettysburg to Meade. 

During the fall detached affairs occurred between Lee's and Meade's 
forces, "who never could remain without some passage at arms." Among 
these must be mentioned: The Roberson river fight, October 10 and 11, the 
Brandy Station on the next day, Bristol on the 14th, Buckland Mills on 
the 19th, Bealton on the 2 4th, Sedgwick's and French's capture of Kelly's 
Ford on the Rappahannock River on November 7, when two thousand 
Grays were taken prisoners. In all these engagements most gallant fight- 
ing and many examples of intrepid personal bravery took place, and were 
exhibited in the ranks of both combatants. 

In December both of the jaded armies went into winter quarters for a 
much needed rest. Still, this could not come to all, for Lee despatched 
Longstreets's corps into Georgia to assist Bragg against Thomas at Chat- 
tanooga, while to offset this the Blues of the 11th and 12th Corps were 
rushed under General Hooker to the relief of Thomas. 



112 THE CAMPAIGNS OP THE CIVIL WAR 



CHAPTER XL 
Naval Operations, 1863. 

DuPont's Naval Expedition Against Charleston, S. C. — Gillmore's and 
Dahlgren's Expedition Against the Same — Fort Wagner — Minor Engagements. 

During the time of the campaigns of the armies in Virginia and the 
Mississippi Valley important operations against Charleston, S. C, had been 
taking place. 

The blockade of Charleston harbor had been ineffective to prevent 
blockade-runners going in with foreign supplies and escaping with cotton. 
While this trading by English capitalists was hazardous in the extreine. 
still the profits were so enormous that a large amount of capital was invested 
l)y them in the dangerous enterprise. They built ships of light draft, great 
power and speed, painted the color of the sea, and manned by daring 
commanders. 

To stop the blockade-runners, old hulks were sunk at the harbor 
entrance, but this expedient was made abortive by the swift tidal currents 
displacing the sands at the bottom, and allowing the obstruction to sink. 
The capture of the harbor alone remained as the only means of breaking 
up the business which, by bringing vast supplies to the Grays, was pro- 
longing the war. 

In April, 18 63, Admiral Samuel F. DuPont, with a fleet of seven modern 
monitors, many gunboats and a ram, made a vicious naval attack upon the 
forts defending the outer harbor, but, after a heroic and terrible struggle, 
in which nearly all his ships were disabled, DuPont abandoned the fight 
and was compelled to admit defeat. 

The aim of the Grays' gunners in the forts was wonderfully accurate; 
for instance, the gunboat Keokuk was penetrated and sunk by nearly one 
hundred shells from the guns on Fort Beauregard. A like fate nearly 
happened to the Weehawken. 

The second Charleston expedition, which started in the early summer 
months of 18 63, was composed of a large force of troops commanded by 
Quincy A. Gillmore, accompanied by a fleet under Admiral John A. Dahlgren. 
After strenuous efforts Gillmore succeeded in getting a foothold on the 
marshes of Folly Island, near where the Grays had erected an important 
work called Fort Wagner, which was manned with the heaviest armament. 

On July 11, wading waist deep through the marshes under a canopy 
of shot and shell made by the fleet's bombardment, the Blues made a 
vigorous assault on Fort Wagner, but the Grays hurled them back, destroy- 
ing nearly every one of the chargers. 

Gillmore then settled down to a systematic siege of the fortifications, 
and in the arrangement of the batteries exhibited great engineering skill. 

In the malarious swamps and under broiling Southern suns the deaths 
among the Blues were very numerous, and the sick list contained nearly 
every able-bodied man. The miasmatic low lands produced among the un- 
acclimated Northerners "country fever," something akin to that terrible 
scourage of yellow fever, which mowed down their numbers faster and 



THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 113 

more surely than assaults on the batteries, and made the sacrifice 
astounding. 

In August the Blues inaugurated a continuous day-and-night bombard- 
ment of both Forts Wagner and Sumter. Tliey battered the old briclv fort, 
out of which the Grays had permitted Major Anderson to retire in 1861 with 
all honors of war, to a pile of rubbish. Neverthele.ss, a small band of 
Grays under command of Major Elliot, sheltered only behind sandbags, hung 
on to the citadel. 

Then followed a .savage onslaught by the Blues upon the garrison in 
Fort Wagner which compelled the Grays to retire, thus giving Gillmore 
possession of Morris Island. He then sent forward a fleet of whaleboats 
conveying infantry to capture Fort Sumter. This assault not only failed, 
but nearly every assailant was either killed or captured. During this 
attack by the army Admiral Dahlgren's fleet lay patiently waiting at the 
Charleston harbor entrance ready to rush forward when Gillmore conquered 
the fort; that opportunity, however, never came. 

Continuing his siege, Gillmore now erected in the swamps platforms on 
pile foundation, to support batteries of heavy thirty-six inch Parrott guns 
of long range, nicknamed by the soldiers "Swamp Angels," wherewith to 
bombard Charleston five miles inland. Although a fierce continuous bom- 
bardment was maintained day and night for a whole week, no serious 
effect was produced in the city. 

While Gillmore at these enormous sacrifices of life and treasure had 
succeeded in capturing the main defensive works of Charleston, he was 
nevertheless entirely unable to subdue the city, nor did it fall into the hands 
of the Federals until the spring of 1865, when Sherman's advance forced 
the Grays to evacuate the historic place. 

The Southern historian, Eggleston, in speaking of the murderous attack 
on Fort Wagner, says: "In all the war no more desperate work was done 
than that of both the Federal and Confederates on the face of Fort Wagner. 
The fire was incessant, and whether it came from siege guns, from field 
pieces, frorri rifles or from pi.stols held in the hand, it was all at pistol 
range. And it was all murderous in its effect. Yet on neither side was 
there for one moment a sign of flinching by day or by night. Many scores 
of men were shot through the body as they slept and at no moment of 
the twenty-four hours was any man secure against this danger." 

During the summer and fall the Blues in more or less strength made, 
from Port Royal, many advances inland in the endeavor to destroy the 
Charleston and Savannah Railroad, but all these efforts failed to dislodge 
the gallant defenders. This was especially so at Pocotaligo and Coosa- 
whatchie, where the defenders held to their works against several times their 
number of assailants. 



114 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 

CHAPTER XII. 

The Chattanooga Campaign, 1863. 

Rosecrans' Campaign Against Chattanooga — Morgan's Raid Inta Ohio — 
Wheeler's and Forrest's Raids Through Tennessee — Chickamauga — Thomas 
Replaces Rosecrans — Grant Comes to His Aid — Battle of Chattanooga — 
Sherman's Relief of Burnside at Knoxville — Southern Bravery. 

For several months after the battle of Murfresboro, or Stone River, 
which occurred January 2, 1863, the Army of the Cumberland, commanded 
by General Rosecrans, lay quietly confronting the Grays under General Bragg 
in Tennessee. 

The War Department, knowing that Bragg's force had been considerably 
depleted by sending reinforcements, during Grant's Vicksburg campaign, 
to Johnston and Pemberton, early in June, instructed Rosecrans to advance, 
drive Bragg south into Georgia, and capture Chattanooga, that important 
railroad junction near the intersection of the boundaries of the three States, 
Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee. 

This campaign extended through several months, the result of which 
had perhaps most decisive effects on the conduct of the war. These opera- 
tions were of gigantic dimensions and replete with dramatic and picturesque 
features. 

While Grant was besieging Vicksburg, Banks, Port Hudson, and Meade 
was contending with Lee in Pennsylvania, Rosecrans on June 25 began the 
execution of his orders. At this time Bragg was near Chattanooga, 
Buckner's Grays were at Knoxville, Tenn., in the eastern mountains some 
one hundred miles northeast of Chattanooga, while another force of Grays 
under General Samuel Jones was stationed near Abington in southwestern 
Virginia. 

Between Buckner and Jones was Cumberland Gap, the well known 
pass in the formidable barrier of the Alleghenies which, as Jefferson Davis 
tells us, "the first pioneer, Daniel Boone, went into Kentucky, and the only 
one in that region by which it was supposed an army with the usual 
artillery and wagon train could march from the North into East Tennessee. 
It was, therefore, fortified in hopes of being a barrier to an advance on 
communications which Buckner and Jones were to defend. It was in com- 
mand of General I. W. Frazier with a force of twenty-three hundred." 

By the latter part of August, Rosecrans' command of seventy thousand 
crossed the mountains to Stevenson and Bridgeport, Tenn., after tedious 
delays due to incessant storms, during which at one time it rained seventeen 
consecutive days, swelling the streams and making roads and fields quagmires. 

Burnside, with twenty-five thousand Blues, had in the meantime 
advanced from Kentucky towards Knoxville, Tennessee, using pack mules 
to convey his supplies across the rugged mountains. At Burnside's approach 
Buckner was forced to retire with his five thousand troops towards Chat- 
tanooga; in the end he joined Bragg near that place, and on September 19 
they attacked Frazier at Cumberland Gap and compelled him to surrender. 

When Rosecrans reached Chattanooga, finding the forts impregnable to 
assault, he stopped but short time to shell the stronghold, and then pushed 



THE CAMPAIGNS OP THE CIVIL WAR 115 

rapidly southward into Georgia, with Dalton and Rome as his objective 
points. This movement compelled Bragg to evacuate Chattanooga and 
hasten to the succor of Georgia, and, as the reinforcements sent by Lee 
under Longstreet were to come via Atlanta, Bragg, as Davis says, "determined 
to retire towards the expected reinforcements, so as to meet the foe in front 
when he should emerge from the mountain gorges." 

In the meantime two important side issues had been undertaken by 
the Grays, of which mention must be made before recounting the famous 
struggles between Rosecrans and Bragg. 

Bragg sent General Morgan with two thousand cavalry on a raiding 
expedition around to the rear of Rosecrans' army, which meeting little 
resistance, succeeded in sacking Columbia and Lebanon in Kentucky. Then 
crossing the Ohio River at Brandenbviry on two captured steamers, Morgan 
directed his course through Indiana towards Cincinnati, and burned mills 
and factories on the outskirts of that city. Brandenbury on the Ohio River 
was reached July 26, where his force was surrounded and compelled to 
surrender. A short time afterwards, Morgan personally succeeding in 
breaking prison at Columbus, O., where he had been incarcerated in the 
State Penitentiary, and making good his escape. 

Another cavalry raid by the Grays under Generals Joseph Wheeler and 
Forrest was made through northern Tennessee, where they came into bloody 
encounters with the Blues under Gordon, Granger and Sleight. The latter, 
while endeavoring to push south to the rear of Bragg, was caught in an 
isolated position, and compelled to surrender his band of two hundred horse- 
men to the ever alert Forrest. 

During August in his movement into Georgia Rosecrans had gotten his 
forces very much scattered, they being at one time stretched out over forty 
miles. 

Bragg on September 7, with the intention of concentrating and hurling 
a heavy force against these detached corps of the Blues, in hope of over- 
whelming first one and then another before they could be concentrated, 
succeeded without being observed by Rosecrans in taking up a position with 
his whole force of thirty-five thousand on the eastern side of Chickamauga 
Creek, a sluggish stream flowing northward along the easterly slope of 
Missionary Ridge and emptying into the Tennessee a few miles east of 
Chattanooga. 

The name Chickamauga most appropriately is Indian for River of 
Death. The famous battle took place on the west banks of the creek from 
which it was named, about ten miles in a direct line southeast of Chat- 
tanooga and a short distance south of a gap in Missionary Ridge at Ross- 
ville, which was one of several passes in the Ridge which gave egress and 
ingress between the Valley of Chattanooga in the west and that in which the 
Chickamauga flowed on the east. The Missionary Ridge is a very rugged 
mountain eight hundred feet in height above the valley. 

On the 8th, Bragg's formation occupied a line along the east side of the 
Chickamauga, with right at Lee and Gordon Mills, three or four miles south 
of the site of the battle. 

From here his line extended southwestward, passing the south end of 
Missionary Ridge to Lafayette twenty-five miles southwest of Chattanooga, 
and lying on the easterly slope of the range called Lookout, which, running 
south and parallel with Missionary Ridge, forms the Valley of Chattanooga. 



116 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 

On the morning of the 9th, five thousand of Rosecrans' scattered com- 
mand, coming from the west side of Lookout, tfirough Stevens' and Cooper's 
Gaps, ran up against the very centre of Bragg's line, and promptly retired 
back into the mountains. 

At this time Thomas' corps, in Rosecrans' command, was arranged along 
the western side of Chickamauga Creek in the vicinity of Rossville Gap. 
With the intention of getting his army between Thomas and Chattanooga, 
Bragg moved his line to the northeast and east of the creek, leaving 
Wheeler's cavalry near where the five thou.sand Blues had attempted to enter 
Chattanooga Valley in the morning, this being done to veil the movement 
against Thomas. 

In the meantime Rosecrans, by forced marches, was gathering his scat- 
tered columns, and finally succeeding in getting a line formed along the 
easterly slope of Missionary Ridge directly opposite Bragg's army. The 
formation was, A. McD. McCook's corps on the right about opposite Lee and 
Gordon Mills, Chittenden's corps in the centre, and Thomas on the left; in 
all fifty-two thousand troops, with five thousand cavalry under command of 
Granger in reserve. 

By evening of September 18, Hood from Virginia, with Walker's division, 
reached the Chickamauga, and at daybreak the next morning the rest of 
Bragg's forces were on the west bank of the creek. 

The Grays' line on the 19th was composed as follows: Buckner on the 
left, his flank resting on the creek about a mile below Lee and Gordon- Mills; 
on his right Hood with his own and Johnston's division; while Walker formed 
the extreme right. The cavalry under Forrest flanked Walker, while those 
under Wheeler flanked Buckner. It will thus be seen that Bragg, aiming to 
get between Rosecrans' left and Chattanooga, had moved his forces north- 
eastward down the Valley. 

Forrest's cavalry, advancing became involved with such a large force 
of the enemy that Walker was compelled to send a brigade to his support. 
This large force was the left wing of Rosecrans' army under Thomas, who, 
seeing Bragg's formation in his front and anticipating his aim, took the 
initiative and attacked. The assault was gallantly met by Walker's men, 
who in a counter-charge broke through two of Thomas' lines and captured 
two batteries and a number of prisoners. Being reinforced, Thomas' men 
dashed at their assailants and, after furious fighting, regained the lost ground. 
At this the Grays' reserves under Cheatham pushed forward into the fray, 
whereupon terrific fighting ensued, which continued for three hours, with 
varying results and a doubtful final outcome. 

It was near sunset when Cleburne's division of Grays pressed across the 
bloody field and charged Thomas' breastworks, and received a crushing fire 
of musketry that made them reel. Instantly the batteries rushed to their 
assistance and opened a terrific fire on the Blues, under cover, of which 
chargers reformed and forced Thomas' men back a full mile, and at night 
slept victorious upon the field of battle. 

During the night Longstreet's Virginian veterans of Gettysburg fame 
came up from Ringgold, Ga., whereupon Bragg reformed his line in two 
wings. The right one under General Polk was composed from left to right 
as follows: Breckinridge, Cleburne, Cheatham, Walker and Forrest's cavalry 
on the flank. The left wing under Longstreet was made up of Preston, 



THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 117 

Heindman, Johnson, (Hood) Law, Kershaw, Stewart and Wheeler's cavalry, 
in all about forty-seven thousand strong. 

Bragg had intended to begin the attack by his right wing against Thomas 
early in the morning of September 20, but this was inadvertently delayed 
until nine a. m. In speaking of this part of the fighting, Jefferson Davis says: 
"Many partial successes were gained in the beginning by the Confederates, 
but in the first operations the troops so frequently moved to the assault 
without the necessary cohesion in a charging line, that nearly all early 
assaults by our right wing were seriously repulsed with loss, though at first 
invariably successful, our troops were subsequently compelled to retire before 
the heavy reinforcements constantly brought up." Wheeler now struck 
Rosecrans' right a savage blow, which, with Longstreet's skilfully conducted 
flanking movement, enveloped that end of the Blues' line. The fighting 
raged furiously from four p. m. until dark, when Rosecrans' right and centre 
.gave way in great disorder. At this moment General Philip Sheridan, 
rallying a considerable portion of a division, rushed to the aid of Thomas 
on the left. And now, as Draper says: "A historical moment had come; 
Thomas proved equal to the task, though half the army had abandoned 
him, he held the ground." At one time when Thomas was thus alone, 
some of Longstreet's force discovered a gap in the hills on Thomas' right 
flank, which they hurried to occupy. Fortunately just then Granger with 
his reserves arrived and threw a brigade of cavalry and six guns into the 
gorge. Two divisions of Longstreet's men charged up to within a few yards 
of Granger's guns, when just at sunset they reeled and fell back. In the 
meantime Thomas was repelling attack after attack on his left center and 
right. At night he retired to Rossville in good order, capturing on the 
way some five hundred isolated Grays, but was compelled to leave on the 
battlefield his dead and wounded. 

The next morning found all of Rosecrans' force within the forts of 
Chfittanoog^. This great victory for the Grays brought them eight thou- 
sand prisoners, fifty-one guns, fifteen thousand small arms and a large 
amount of stores. The Blues having evacuated Lookout Mountain, Bragg 
occupied it, and thus was able to cut off the supplies from Roaecrans' army. 

Pollard says of the battle of Chlckamauga, "that nothing was more 
brilliant in all of Napoleon's Italian campaigns. Chickamauga was equally 
as desperate as the battle of Areola; but it was productive of no decisive 
results, and we shall see it was followed, as many other brilliant victories 
of the Confederacy, by almost immediate consequences of disaster. The 
aggregate of the combatants was over one hundred thousand, and the 
losses were about one-third their number." 

On the 24th, the Grays made a vicious as.sault on Rosecrans' forts about 
Chattanooga, which was stubbornly repelled. Bragg then retired with his 
exhausted and depleted army to Missionary Ridge for rest and reorgani- 
zation. 

The bottling up of Rosecrans in Chattanooga gave Bragg control of all 
the railroads and also the Tennessee River, thus obliging the Blues' supply 
trains to make long circuitous routes through the mountain passes and 
along muddy roads. These trains were frequently attacked and destroj'ed 
by the dashing Gray cavalry and in the end the Blues' base of supplies was 
entirely cut off. Rosecrans' command was now in a most deplorable condi- 
tion, famine and starvation staring the soldiers and animals in the face. 



1L8 THE CAMPAIGN S OF THE CIVIL WAR 

The number of horses had diminished to such an extent that there 
were not sufficient of them to bring a battery into position. The team 
mules died to the number of ten thousand, and, as the soldiers said, "the 
mud was so deep that we could not travel by the roads, though we got along 
pretty well by stepping from mule to mule as they lay dead by the way." 

Rosecrans was now relieved, and Thomas placed in command. 

As early as September 22 Halleck had directed Grant to send every 
available force to the assistance of Rosecrans' Army of the Cumberland, 
and now the Administration bent every effort to the succor of Thomas' 
imprisoned and starving army in Chattanooga. 

On October 16 General Grant was ordered to assume command of the 
Armies of the Cumberland, Ohio and Tennessee. He immediately tele- 
graphed Thomas to hold on at all hazards, who replied: "I will do so until 
we starve." The 11th and 12th Corps of the Army of the Potomac, under 
General Hooker, consisting of twenty-three thousand troops, were transported 
safely by rail from the Rapidan in Virginia to Stevenson, Ala., a distance of 
twelve hundred miles in seven days, a wonderful achievement, considering 
the very inadequate railroad facilities of the period. 

At the same time General Sherman was ordered to hurry his Army of 
the Tennessee, then at Memphis, with all speed to Chattanooga. Grant in 
person reached Thomas on October 23. Without counting the forces under 
Burnside then at Knoxville, the troops now under command of Grant 
numbered eighty thousand, while Bragg's force was reported as being only 
sixty thousand. 

Going back we find that immediately after the fall of Vicksburg' Grant's 
army, during a vigorous campaign, had cleared the country for over one 
hundred miles around him of all threatening forces, and there was no 
enemy of serious proportions to oppose him, and only roving guerrillas whose 
depredations, while numerous and annoying, had no influence on the general 
r'^sults of the war. 

Prior to Rosecrans' advance it had been intended by the Administration 
to have Grant join with Banks for the capture of Mobile, Ala., but the 
necessity of detaching niany troops from Grant's command not only to rein- 
force Rosecrans, but also to keep up a force in Arkansas against the Grays 
there under Price, deferred the Mobile camjjaign to the beginning of 1865. 

Sherman started from Memphis for Chattanooga early in October witn 
three divisions of his 15th Corps and some eighty thousand of the 16th 
Corps. The task before these veterans was a march of three hundred and 
thirty miles through a hostile country, infested by roving bands of guer- 
rillas — so named by the Blues, though their title in the Confederate Army 
was "Rangers." They were not outlaws, but bodies of fighters mainly 
made up of bold, brave, dashing men, free to roam as they pleased, and 
throughout the war, although not attached to the organized armies, they 
gave effective assistance to them by prowling about the flanks of the enemy 
and inflicting losses of prisoners and stores. The greatest of these bands 
was that under Colonel John S. Mosby, whose skilful dashes in the Shenan- 
doah Valley during 1863 and 1864 compelled the Union commanders to 
detach considerable forces from their armies in order to watch and ward 
off these pests. 

Sherman's orders from Halleck were to repair all the destroyed rail- 
roads and bridges as he proceeded, so as to maintain his base of supplies at 



THE CAMPAIGNS OP THE CIVIL WAR UU 

Memphis. This Grant found, however, occupied so much time, tliat he 
established a new base for Sherman at Eastport, Tenn., bringing south 
supplies by the Tennessee River and the railroads, and ordered Sherman to 
push on. By rapid marches Sherman reached Chattanooga in the early 
weeks of November. 

Grant's forces now about Chattanooga depended for supplies on a single- 
track railroad over one hundred miles long to his base at Nashville. To 
guard and keep intact this long line of communications against the incessant 
attacks of the vigilant Grays' cavalry, he was obliged to detach some ten 
thousand troops under General Dodge to patrol the vital artery. 

Hooker's two corps from the Army of the Potomac, a few weeks before 
Sherman's arrival, succeeded in making a lodgement at Bridgeport on the 
Tennessee River, about twenty-flve miles directly west of Chattanooga, and 
threatened the left flank of Bragg's army posted on Lookout Mountain. 
Grant without delay rushed supplies to Thomas' famishing army imprisoned 
in Chattanooga. Of this he says in his Memoirs: "It is hard for any one 
not an eye-witness to realize the relief this brought; the men were soon 
reclothed and also well fed; an abundance of ammunition was brought up 
and a cheerfulness prevailed not before enjoyed in many weeks. Neither 
officers nor men looked upon themselves as doomed." 

Now, what turned out to Ije a very serious military error was committed 
by the Confederate Government. In the very face of Grant's preparations, 
Longstreet's veterans were ordered on November 4 to dash north to the 
attack of Burnside's isolated force at Knoxville, Tennessee, thus greatly 
depleting Bragg's already small army. 

Grant instead of detaching from his army, forces to chase after Long- 
street, as was anticipated, instructed Burnside to lure the Grays as far 
north as. possible by retiring before Longstreet's advance, and at the same 
time Grant sent a strong force of cavalry to cut off Longstreet's communi- 
cation to the south. 

The site of the famous battle of Chattanooga may be described as 
follows: 

General Thomas' Army of the Cumberland was strongly entrenched in 
a semi-circle south and east of Chattanooga in the Cheat or Chattanooga 
Valley, with the Tennessee River to its rear. Spreading out south of Thomas, 
the Valley had a width of six miles, its boundaries on the east being Mis- 
sionary Ridge, a range eight hundred feet in height above the Valley, run- 
ning almost due north and south, and ending abruptly at the north end 
near where the Chicamauga Creek enters the Tennessee River, and where 
stood the railroad station of Bragg's base of supplies. The west side of 
the Valley was formed by the range called Lookout Mountain, towering 
some fifteen hundred feet above the Valley, the northern end of which fell 
precipitously to the Tennessee River. By reason of a great bend in the 
river the bluff of Lookout lies almost due south of Chattanooga. To the 
west of Lookout runs parallel another range called Racoon Mountain, and in 
the intervening Racoon Valley was stationed Hooker's corps. 

Bragg's line on November 23, commenced with its right in rifle pits at 
the base of the north end of Missionary Ridge. Then, stretching southward 
along the crest of the ridge for a few miles almost to Rossville, it turned 
abruptly west and continued across Chattanooga Valley and up on to Look- 
out. It will thus be seen that the northern end of the battlefield of Chicka- 



120 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 

mauga, Rossville, was the southern end of that of Chattanooga, on Missionary- 
Ridge. 

Bragg's right wing was commanded by General Hardee, under whom 
were the divisions of Cleburne, Walker, Cheatham and Stevenson. The 
left under General Breckinridge was composed of his own division, Stewart's 
and parts of Buckner and Hindman's divisions. 

During the night of the 24th some of Hooker's men scaled the 
precipitous woody sides of Lookout and drove the Grays east down into the 
Valley. This movement was conducted while the crest of Lookout was 
enveloped in a dense fog, which fact gave rise to the title of "Hooker's 
battle above the clouds." The left of the Blues' line was made up the 
same day by getting a lodgement on the south side of the Tennessee River 
opposite Hardee, this being expeditiously accomplished by Sherman's men 
making rapid marches during the night to avoid being observed by the 
Grays from the heights of Missionary Ridge. Sherman was greatly assisted 
by Grant's foresight in having ample pontcjon bridges ready in advance to 
cro.ss the Tenne.ssee. One of these was thirteen hundred feet long. Thomas* 
corps still maintained the centre about Chattanooga. 

Draper, in his History of the Civil War, says in substance, that the 
famous battle of Chattanooga consisted of three acts: 

1st. The passage of the Tennessee River by Sherman contributing to 
the left, upon which wing fell the weight of battle, thus compelling Bragg 
to weaken his centre in order to protect his base of supplies at the railroad 
station near Chickamauga Creek, which it was supposed Sherman was aiming 
for. 

2nd. The capture of Lookout by Hooker. 

3rd. The attack and capture of Missionary Ridge by the charge of the 
centre under Thomas. 

On the morning of 2 5th, Hooker advanced from Lookout down 
into the valley almost due ea.st. The destruction of the bridges over the 
Chattanooga River together with the stubborn resistance kept up by Brecken- 
ridge's men, delayed until three p. m. the accomplishment of Grant's plan, 
which was to have the wing of his army under Hooker strike Rossville, 
about four miles south of Thomas' center wing. 

Reaching the gap at Rossville, Hooker pushed a part of his forces 
around to the east of the ridge, and drove the slender number at Bragg's 
left back up on to the crest. This was the same gap through wTiich Thomas 
on the night after the battle of Chickamauga had retreated to Chattanooga. 

All morning, in the attempt to crush Sherman, Bragg kept massing 
forces to his right, where the fighting was maintained murderously and 
incessantly. At one time, when it seemed Sherman must go down, Grant 
hurriedly detached to him reinforcements from Thomas' left, the move- 
ment being distinctly observed by Bragg from his elevated headquarters on 
Missionary Ridge. 

Grant's headquarters were on Orchard Knob, which Thomas had cap- 
tured the day before. This was a commanding knoll lying midway between 
the City of Chattanooga and Missionary Ridge, from which the commander 
had a full view of nearly all the operations from Sherman on the Tennessee 
River to Hooker at Rossville, ten miles south of Sherman. 

Between three and four in the afternoon, just at the critical moment 
in Sherman's wing, and as Hooker was driving the Grays' left northward, 



THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 121 

Grant ordered Thomas' center wing to charge. "Like a thunder bolt" the 
Army of the Cumberland fell upon the weakened lines of its enemy's center, 
and sent it in full flight up Missionary Ridge. Reaching the crest the 
Grays turned at bay, and a fearful hand to hand contest ensued in which 
frightful numl)ers were slain on both sides. Time and again Thomas tried 
to restrain his eager chargers, but to no avail. In the meantime fierce 
fighting was continuing along the whole line. 

The end of the bloody struggle came at midnight, when Bragg's army 
fled in disorder, hotly pursued by the Blues. Grant, however, called a 
halt just as Hooker's men had met a serious check at Ringgold, and ordered 
preparations made for the rescue of Burnside from Longstreet at Knoxville. 

Sherman, in relating the Battle of Chattanooga, says in his Memoirs: 
"The first day was lowering and overcast, favoring us greatly, because we 
wanted to conceal from Bragg whose position overlooked our movements. 
The second day was beautiful, clear and bright, and many times I could 
not help stopping to look across the vast field of battle and admire its 
sublimity." 

Pollard, in his "Lost Cause," states that at one time "Bragg in attempting 
to rally the broken troops advanced into the fire, and exclaimed: 'Here is 
your commander,' and was answered with the derisive shouts of an absurd 
catch phrase: 'Here's your mule.' Bragg's army notoriously lacked confi- 
dence in their commander; it also lacked artillery horses and made weak 
and suspicious by the detachment of Longstreet." 

As has already been stated, early in March Burn.side had. been placed 
in command of the Army of the Ohio, consisting of some twenty thousand 
troops then at Richmond. Ky. 

While Rosecrans was advancing on to Chattanooga, he pushed on into 
Tennessee, and, after arduous mountain climbing, conveying his supplies by 
pack mules, succeeded in capturing Knoxville on September 9, compelling 
the defenders under General Buckner to fall back on to Bragg's army at 
Chattanooga. Then followed, as we have learned, the movement of Long- 
street north to assail Knoxville in early November. 

Longstreet's and Burnside's men first clashed at London on November 
] 6, after which the Blues retired into the fortifications of Knoxville. The 
following day Longstreet's forces made furious assault on the beleaguered 
Blues in hopes to carry the works, but their frantic efforts resulted only 
in bloody repulses. Knowing that Burnside's army had but three weeks' 
supplies on hand, Longstreet then settled down to a siege until starvation 
should force his enemy to surrender. Learning on the 29th of Bragg's 
defeat at Missionary Ridge, he made a final desperate assault on Fort 
Sanders, and another on the south side of Burnside's work, but, in spite of 
the desperate chargers and furious fighting, the Blues held to their guns. 

Immediately after the battle of Chattanooga Sherman's weary and worn 
out veterans started with but two days' rations on their tramp of seven 
days to the relief of their twelve thousand comrades bottled up by Long- 
street in Knoxville. In his Memoirs Sherman says: "My troops had been in 
constant motion since March, when they left the Big Black River. Long 
periods, the troops were without regular rations; marching throu.gh mud 
and over rock barefooted without a murmur; in all four hundred miles; 
three succeeding days without sleep; crossed the Tennessee, fought the 
battle of Chattanooga, and then pushed on one hundred and twenty miles 



122 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL, WAR 

more in bitter cold weather through the sodden roads of Tennessee to raise 
the siege of Knoxville." 

Long'street on learning of the approach of Sherman hurriedly retired 
northeastwardly to cross the mountains, with the intention of joining Lee 
in Virginia via the railroad. The Blues under Arerill had, however, de- 
stroyed the railroad. 

Not having been properly supported by the Government, Longstreet 
was now completely isolated in a wild mountainous country; the weather 
was bitter cold; his men were barefooted and half famished, with daily 
skirmish encounters between his own and the Blues' foraging parties. And 
so the dreary winter drew out, for it was not until February that the rail- 
road was sufficiently repaired to enable Longstreet to join Lee in Virginia. 

Thus, too, these Virginia veterans had been on the go since 
March — had fought at Chancellorsville, tramped with Lee in Penn- 
sylvania, constituted the main fighting line at Gettysburg, rushed 
south to Bragg, taking a very active part in the battle of Chicka- 
mauga, and then had marched off again against Burnside at Knoxville, 
where they made bloody assault after assault on impregnable works; and 
at last remained famishing during bitter cold weather in the barren regions 
of the Allegheny Mountains. This is surely a record of suffering, endurance, 
bravery and heroism of which every American boy and girl may feel proud, 
for these achievements were made by their countrymen. It was not 
Longstreet's genius alone which accomplished such marvelous undertakings, 
never before equaled in modern warfare. No — it was American grit. 

And so while General Sherman testifies to the fortitude of his Northern 
heroes, we find registered the same bravery, dignity, enlightment and 
genius equally displayed by their Southern brothers. 

Aside from whatever question, rancor or prejudice may bring into the 
controver.sy as to which side was right or which wrong, there stands out 
the majesty of American civilization to which the children of these un- 
daunted Blues and Grays may well point with patriotic pride. 

All the great generals, including Grant and Lee, constantly maintained 
that their victories resulted from the self sacrifice and endurance and 
courage of their common soldiers. 

In speaking of these vast achievements of Americans we must not 
forget that equal courage and fortitude was displayed by that vast number 
of foreign-born soldiers which constituted the armies of the North. But 
still the war was, nevertheless, planned and executed by American genius. 
The leading generals of both North and South were educated soldiers from 
the National Military School at West Point, N. Y. Nearly every Gray was 
native born, and the vast majority of the Blues were also American, for 
even among the troops enrolled in the State of New York, which sent forth 
the greater number of foreigners, the number of these constiuted but one- 
third of the whole enlistment from that State. 

After the defeat of Chattanooga, President Davis very reluctantly 
relieved Bragg, and appointed General Joseph E. Johnston in his place. 
The Grays then retired to Dalton, Georgia. 

Eggleston, in his "History of the Confederate War," in speaking of 
these operations of 1863, says: "The campaign had been dramatic in many 
of its features and peculiarly picturesque in some of them. It cost the 
lives of six to ten thousand men on both sides. It left the Federals masters 
of Chattanooga, placing the Confederates in an uncertain defensive position 
against which future operations were comparatively easy." 



THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 123 

CHAPTER XIII. 
Campaign in the West and Southwest. 

Sherman's Meridian Campaign — General Forrest's Operations — Fort 
Pillow — Grant Made Lieutenant-General — Military Situation in Spring of 
18 64- — Grant's General Plan — Red River Campaign — Battle of Sabine Cross- 
Roads — Pleasant Hill — The Navy in the Red River Campaign — Engineer 
Bailey's Dam— Mansura Plains — Crossing of the Atchafalaya — Steel's March — 
Canby Takes Command of the West Mississippi Department — Return East 
of the 19th Army Corps- — Failure of Price's Raid in Missouri. 

After the fall of Vicksburg, July 4, 18 63, it was the intention of the War 
Department to have Grant's victorious army follow up and destroy, if possible, 
Johnston's force, which was then in the vicinity of Meridian, Miss. The 
intense heat of summer, accompanied by an extended drought, however, 
delayed the operation. Then, as has been related, Sherman's forces were 
hurriedly sent to the rescue of Thomas at Chattanooga, and, soon afterwards, 
to the succor of "Burnside at Knoxville, Tenn. At the end of December 
Sherman was back again at Memphis in command of McPherson and 
Hurlburt's corps. Thomas was at Dalton, Ga., confronting Johnston. "Now 
is the time to strike at Meridian and Selma," Sherman wrote General 
McPherson then at Vicksburg, from which place it was planned to set out. 
Sherman's Meridian expedition consisted of ten thousand troops formed 
from the divisions of McPherson and Hurlburt's corps, together with twenty- 
fTve hundred cavalry under General W. Sooy Smith. 

The objects of this expedition was told by Sherman in a letter he wrote 
General Banks, then at New Orleans: "I propose," said he, "to avail myself 
of the short time allowed me here to strike a blow at Meridian and 
Dimopolis. I think I can do it, and the destruction of the railroads, west, 
north and south of Meridian will close the door of rapid travel and con- 
veyance of stores from Mississippi and the Confederacy east. That will 
make us all less liable to the incursions of the enemy towards the Mississippi 
River. I intend to leave Vicksburg about January 25, and hope to be near 
Meridian February 10." 

Continuing, he advised Banks, with his 19th Army Corps to .make a feint 
on Mobile, Ala., in order to draw from Johnston's forces at Meridian, and 
at the same time to attack Shreveport, La. "For," said he, "it is not to 
our interests to go beyond Meridian until we can take Mobile and the 
Alabama River." 

Meridian and Selma lay directly east of Vicksburg and distant from 
that place, respectively, one hundred and twenty and two hundred and 
thirty miles. Shreveport lay directly west and about one hundred and 
seventy miles from Vicksburg, all as the crow flies. 

That portion of Johnston's army then at Meridian was under the 
command of General Polk, with four thousand cavalry under General Forrest 
in northern Mississippi, while another force of four thousand horsemen 
under Stephen Lee were in southern Mississippi. 

W. Sooy Smith's cavalry reached Meridian February 10, 1864, and 
destroyed the railroads. Sherman's infantry started from Vicksburg 



124 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 



February 3, in light marching order and with but twenty days' rations. 
Reaching- Jackson, about half way towards Meridian, they completely 
surprised the enemy, who in their hurried retreat failed to destroy a pontoon 
bridge they had constructed over the Pearl River, which Sherman's men 
made prompt use of in the pursuit, and reached, on the 14th, Meridian, 
which was found evacuated by Polk's small force. The 15th was employed 
by Sherman's men in destroying- all the railroads, besides depots, arsenals, 
hospitals and hotels, sparing only the dwellings of the inhabitants. 

Having carried out his mission of destruction, Sherman left on the 
20th for his return to Vicksburg. His march westward was acconnpanied 
by a horde of seven thousand tattered and famished negro fugitives. As 
Draper states: "These simple people believed the day of Jubilee, of which 
they had so often sung in their hymns and begged for in their prayers, had 
come at last." 

Pollard, the Southern historian, says: "Polk's army was in no condition 
to give battle, being but half of Sherman's numbers, and he, therefore, 
evacuated Meridian and retired to Dimopolis. 

Meanwhile General Forrest with not more than twenty-five hundred 
cavalry had been detached to watch the movements of W. Sooy Smith and 
Grierson's cavalry, and was left to confront eight thousand of the best 
equipped cavalry that the Blues had ever put in the field. But the great Gray 
cavalry chief of the West showed no hesitation. He struck the enemy on 
the broad prairies near West Point, and at Okalona on the twenty-first day of 
February he had a more important action, and put the enemy in shameful 
retreat to Memphis." 

Meeting with no resistance Forrest continued north, leaving destruction 
in his path, and, reaching Paducah, Ky., held by Colonel Heck with but 
eight hundred and fifty men, demanded its surrender, but was refused. 
Three vicious, but unavailing assaults were then made by Forrest's men 
upon the works in which they lost heavily. This determined Forrest to 
abandon the conquest. 

He then struck out for Fort Pillow on the Mississippi River, which 

was garrisoned by some three hundred white and four hundred black 
soldiers. 

On the 12th of April he made the attack at sunrise, during which 
the commander of the fort. Major Booth, was killed. The surrender of 
the fort was then demanded within twenty minutes, but refused by Major 
Bradford. An assault was immediately made and the fort carried. "The 
carnage did not stop with the struggle of the storming, but continued as 
a carnival of murder until night, and was renewed again the next morning. 
The fugitives were dragged from their hiding places and cruelly murdered." 
For black soldiers there was no mercy; "they were massacred because they 
were negroes, and the whites, because they were fighting with niggers." 
Stephen Lee, Forrest's commander in extenuation, said: "You had a servile 
race armed against their masters, and in a country which had been 
desolated by almost unprecedented outrages." 

As to the Fort Pillow massacre, which created at the North, especially 
among the radical politicians and press, deep seated resentfulness that to 
a considerable extent permeated the army, the Southern historian, Eggleston, 
says: "But from beginning to end the Confederates refused to recognize the 
right of their enemy to enlist their run-away slaves in war against them. 



THE CAMPAIGNS OP THE CIVIL, WAR 125 



From first to last they refused to regard negroes as soldiers entitled to be 
treated as such. So when Forrest found Fort Pillow garrisoned chiefly by 
negro troops, even had he desired it to be otherwise, he could not have 
prevented the slaughter that ensued. His men simply would not make 
prisoners of war out of negroes in arms, and the result of the struggle 
was a Federal loss of five hundred killed together with nearly all their 
white officers, while the Confederates, according to Forrest's report, lost but 
twenty men. In his dispatches written at the time of excitement Forrest 
said: "It is hoped that these facts will demonstrate to the Northern people 
that negro soldiers cannot cope with Southerners." 

After the Fort Pillow affair Forrest retired into Mississippi, while a 
force of twelve thousand Blues under General Sturges gave chase after him. 
Early in June those forces clinched, and the result of the desperate 
encounters was to compel Sturges to fall back to Memphis with a loss of 
between three thousand and four thousand. 

In the endeavor to stop the skilful Forrest from repeating his raiding 
operations, another expedition was sent against him in July under A. J. 
Smith, but this new enemy Forrest forced back to Memphis. Again in 
Augu.st, Smith sallied forth to annihilate his intrepid foe, Init he was again 
outwitted by the wily Forrest, who suddenly, unobserved, got to the rear 
of Smith's forces, drove them back, and even dashed into the city of 
Memphis and occupied it for several days, after which he retired in safety 
to Mississippi. 

On March 9, 18 64, Ulysses S. Grant received from the hands of President 
Lincoln in the presence of the Cabinet at Washington his commission as 
Lieutenant-General. No one since George Washington had been raised to 
that exalted station, G,eneral Scott having been made only Brevet Lieutenant- 
General. 

General Grant having been appointed commander-in-chief, the nine- 
teen different army corps, constituting the entire Federal Army, were now 
brought for the first time in the history of the war under one single directing 
master mind. Grant in his Memoirs states the military situation at this 
time as follows: 

"The Mississippi River was guarded from St. Louis to its mouth; the 
line of the Arkansas was held, thus giving us all of the North West north 
of that river. A few points in Louisiana, not remote from the river, were 
held by the Federal troops, as was also the mouth of the Rio Grande. East 
of the Mississippi we held substantially all north of the Memphis and 
Charleston Railroad, as far east as Chattanooga, thence along the line of 
the Tennessee and Holston rivers, taking in nearly all of the State of 
Tennessee. West Virginia was in our hands; and that part of old Virginia, 
north of the Rapidan and east of the Blue Ridge we also held. 

"On the seacoast we had Fortress Monroe and Norfolk in Virginia, 
Plymouth, Washington and New Berne in North Carolina, Beaufort and 
Folly and Morris Islands, Hilton Head, Port Royal and Fort Pulaski in South 
Carolina, and Georgia, Fernandina, St. Augustine, Key West and Pensacola 
in Florida. The balance of the southern territory, an empire in extent, was 
still in the hands of the enemy." 

Sherman, who had succeeded me in command of the military division 
of the Mississippi, commanded all ih(> troojis in the territory west of the 



126 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 



Alleghenies and north of Natchez, with a large movable force about Chat- 
tanooga. * » * In the east the opposing forces stood in substantially 
the same relation towards each other as three years before, or when the 
war began. They were both between the Federal and Confederate 
capitals. * * * 

"That portion of the Army of the Potomac not engaged in guarding 
lines of communications was on the northern bank of the Rapidan. The 
Army of Northern Virginia confronting it on the opposite bank of the same 
river was strongly entrenched, and commanded by the acknowledged ablest 
general in the Confederate army (Lee.) * * * -phe L^nion armies were 
now divided into nineteen departments, though four of them in the west 
had been concentrated into a single military division. The Army of the 
Potomac was a separate command, and had no territorial limits. There 
were thus seventeen distinct commanders. Before this time these various 
armies had acted separately and independently of each other, giving the 
enemy an opportunity often of depleting one command, not pressed to 
reinforce another more actively engaged. I determined to stop this. To 
this end I regarded the Army of the Potomac as the centre, and all west of 
Memphis, along the line described as our position at the time and north of it, 
the right wing; the Army of the James under General Butler (with head- 
quarters at Fortress Monroe) as the left wing, and all the troops south 
as a force in the rear of the enemy * * * Officers and soldiers on 
furlough, of whom there were many thousands, were ordered to their proper 
commands; concentration was the order of the day." 

He then states that the 9th Corps of over twenty thousand strong 
under General Burnside, then at Annapolis, Maryland, was added to the 
Army of the Potomac. 

"My general plan was to concentrate all the force possible against the 
Confederate armies in the field. There were but two such, as we have 
seen, east of the Mississippi River, and facing north. The Army of Northern 
Virginia, General Robert E. Lee commanding, was on the south bank of the 
Rapidan, confronting the Army of the Potomac. The second under Joseph 
E. Johnston was at Dalton, Georgia, opposed to Sherman, who was still at 
Chattanooga. Besides these main armies the Confederates had to guard 
the Shenandoah Valley, a great storehouse to feed their armies from, and 
their line of communications from Richmond and Tennessee. Forrest, a 
brave and intrepid cavalry general, was in the west with a large force, 
making a larger command necessary to hold what we had gained in middle 
and west Tennessee. We could not abandon any territory north of the 
line held by the enemy, because it would lay the Northern States open to 
invasion. * * * i arranged for a simultaneous movement all along the 
line. Sherman was to move from Chattanooga, against Johnston, Atlanta 
being his objective point. Cooke commanding in West Virginia, was to move 
from the mouth of the Gauley River, with a cavalry force and some artillery, 
the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad to be his objective. Sigel was in com- 
mand in the Shenandoah Valley. He was to advance up the Valley, cover- 
ing the North from an invasion through that channel, as well by advancing 
as by remaining at Harper's Ferry. Every mile he advanced gave us 
possession of stores on which Lee relied. Butler was to advance by the 
James River, having Richmond and Petersburg as his objective * * * 
Banks in the Department of the Gulf was ordered to assemble all the troops 



THE CAMPAIGNS OP THE CIVIL WAR 127 

he had at New Orleans in time to join in the general move, Mobile being 
his objective." 

Grant's orders to the commanders of the various departments were to 
keep constantly and incessantly at work during all seasons. For, as he 
said, "The lasting peace of the nation could not endure until the entire 
military power of the Confederacy was utterly destroyed. To hammer 
continually against the armed forces of the enemy and his resources until 
by mere attrition, if in no other way, there should be nothing left to him, 
but an equal submission with the loyal section of our common country to 
the Constitution and laws of the land." 

General Halleck was now relieved as General-in-Chief and assigned as 
Chief of Staff, and, as Draper aptly puts it, "the chief interest of the war 
now centered upon Grant and Sherman," the former taking personal com- 
mand of the proposed operation east of the Alleghanies, while Sherman 
was to conduct those in the Mississippi Valley, his orders from Grant being 
to "get as far into the enemy's country as you can, and inflict all the damage 
you can against their war resources." "I will stay," said Grant, "with the 
Army of the Potomac and operate against Lee." 

The Washington Administration for some unexplained reason, in spite 
of the numerous places occupied along the Gulf coast by Banks' forces, as 
has been stated in Chapter IX, ordered the abandonment of the Texas 
movement, and instructed Grant, Banks and Admiral Porter to join in 
fitting out a powerful expedition against Shreveport, Louisiana, that great 
storehouse of the Confederacy for supplies going from West Louisiana and 
Texas to the armies east of the Mississippi. 

Shreveport, one hundred and seventy-five miles directly west of Vicks- 
burg as the crow flies, was connected with the latter city by rail, and thence 
with the railroad system of Mississippi, Georgia and the Carolinas inade a 
most important base of supplies. 

The Shreveport campaign contemplated that Banks with the 19th 
Corps should move northwest via the Red River from New Orleans, William 
Steele advancing south from Arkansas, and two divisions of the 16th Corps 
under General Mower with one division of the 17th Corps from Sherman's 
army then at Vicksburg, moving southward under command of General 
A. J. Smith; these three wings it was intended should assemble at Alexandria 
on the Red River about March 17. 

On March 2 Porter's fleet was at the mouth of the Red River consisting 
of nineteen ironclads; A. J. Smith's force got there in transports on the 
1 1th, and, uniting with the fleet, sailed up the tortuous river through the 
swampy regions of Louisiana, and in passing" subdued the only defensive 
works, that of Fort De Russy. They also recaptured the famous gunboats 
Indianola and Harriet Lane which had fallen into the hands of the Grays 
the year before. The troops and fleet then proceeded up the river and 
arrived at Alexandria on the 16th, one day before the scheduled date. 

The 19th Corps under General Franklin on its march of one hun- 
dred and sixty miles from the lower Teche Country, strung out along the 
devious levee roads of that swampy malarious region, finally reached Alex- 
andria on the 24th, seven days late. 

Franklin's well drilled and equipped veterans entered the city march- 
ing, with regimental bands playing, in a precision of parade that elicited 
the admiration of both friend and foe. 



128 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 

Alexandria lies just above the margin between the swampy region and 
the highlands of Louisiana. A short distance above the town the Red 
River is blocked by bars of sand and rock, which form rapids, and not- 
withstanding the slowly rising water it was with difficulty that the lighter 
draft gunboats were gotten above the shallow places. By April 3 twelve 
gunboats and thirty transports were above the town en route for Shreve- 
port, their place of destination, something over one hundred miles to the 
northwest. 

The usual seasonable rising of the river had been counted upon, but 
this year the water was abnormally low, and "bare rock" divided the fleet. 
Furthermore, the supplies for the thirty-one thousand troops had to be 
landed from the boats at Alexandria, and then teamed as the army ad- 
vanced. 

On March 29 Banks received from General Grant, now the Commander- 
in-Chief of all the national forces then in Virginia operating against Lee, 
instructions that, if his forces were not able to capture Shreveport by 
April 25, he should abandon the exposition and return A. J. Smith's forces 
post haste to General Sherman in Missis.sippi, and send the 19th Corps 
to New Orleans. 

Without waiting for the third wing under General Steele from Arkansas, 
Banks advanced on to Shreveport through an interminable wilderness of 
dense pine forests. 

His wagon train of supplies of food and ammunition stretched out 
twelve miles along the narrow roads, sodden from rains, and so the in- 
fantry made very slow progress. 

The Grays' cavalry, commanded by General Green, together vi^ith two 
divisions of General Price's troops from Arkansas, joined General Richard 
Taylor, thus making a force of sixteen thousand men. While these forces 
numbered but half of Banks' invaders, Taylor, with his superior knowledge 
of the country, could choose his own fighting ground. This he did by 
taking a stand on a "small clearing in the dense forests. It was but half a 
mile wide and across the road it stretched only three-quarters of a mile, 
while down the middle it was divided by a deep ravine," says Irwin. This 
is the site of the battle of Sabine Cross-Roads or Mansfield, which occurred 
on April 8. 

When Banks' advance forces, numbering but five thousand, reached 
the clearing, Taylor's men suddenly delivered a vigorous charge, led by 
General Moulton with his division of ten thou.sand, that enabled him 
largely to overlap the fianks of the five thousand Blues cramped in the 
narrow opening. The first onrush of the Grays was checked for a time; 
then, rallying, the Gray chargers under General H. P. Bee and Walker 
turned the Blues' whole left, and, after a stubborn fight, captured a quantity 
of provisions; a Union disaster would have occurred but for the grim, 
defiant stand of Nims' Battery. 

Irwin says that: "Hearing the fighting at the front. Generals Franklin 
and Emory of the 19th Corps hurried forward, when just as they reached 
the firing lines Franklin's horse was killed and himself badly wounded. 
The handful of thirteen hundred of the 13th Corps which composed the 
assaulted left crumbled and fell back, and the retreat once fairly begun 
all attempts to stay its course were idle, for every man knew just how far 
back ho must go to find room out of the dense forest to form a line of 



THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL. WAR 129 

battle longer than the road was narrow. In the retreat the column came 
upon a tangled mass of supply wagons marshed in a slough, thus holding 
up the retreating line which resulted in forcing Nims to abandon the guns 
of his battery, and thus twenty-three cannons were lost, three on the field 
and twenty in the jam, besides one hundred and seventy-five wagons, eleven 
ambulances and over one thousand draft animals. After this there was 
only one mass of men, wagons and horses crowding to the rear." 

Emory now, about 5 p. m., forcing his way to the front through the 
confused rabble with the first division of the 19th Corps, finally found an 
open space big enough to deploy, when he saw the enemy coming, some 
stopping to loot the well-filled trains of the Blues. Their main force, how- 
ever, charged with a wild yell. There had been only time and room 
enough for Emory to deploy one regiment to meet and face this onslaught 
in the dense forest and obstructed road. This was the gallant 161st New 
York. Irwin says: "This regiment as skirmishers held their ground so 
well that time was gained to bring up the whole division, but when at last 
the Confederate line of battle refused any longer to be held back by a 
fringe of skirmishers it became a serious question whether friend and 
foe might not enter the Union lines together. As the gallant Gray charges 
came down on the thin line of skirmishers, the 161st was ordered to retire, 
while the division, kneeling, waiting ready, opened a fierce fire at point 
blank range which threw back the assailants with heavy loss. Again and 
a.gain the Grays attempted to turn both flanks of the division, but failed, 
and the battle of Sabine Cross Roads ended. The Blues lost over two 
thousand, while Taylor admitted a loss of one thousand. This fierce battle 
was named by the Grays Mansfield;" technically it was called a fight in a 
Mind defile." 

Banks, realizing that he would be unable to reach Shreveport within 
the date fixed by Grant, and that in accordance with his instructions the 
1 9th Corps was to be ready on May 1 for the contemplated attack on Mobile, 
and A. J. Smith's troops were to be returned to. Vicksburg, felt that there 
was nothing left for him but to retreat. 

Furthermore, the drinking-water, which the inhabitants of this region 
obtained by gathering the rain-fall from roofs into huge wooden tanks, 
had been exhausted by both armies, so that the men would be forced to 
use the unhealthy river water and thus create a large sick list. 

Taylor, detecting Banks' retrograde move, kept close at his heels. To 
throw off their annoyers, the Blues made a stand on April 9 on one of those 
scarce and small openings in the forests, near a hamlet called Pleasant Hill. 
Here the Grays made repeated charges, but were checked. The fighting 
by both sides was most furious, and at some places on the limited clearing 
hand-to-hand encounters occurred in which great heroism was displayed 
by both Blue and Gray. The result was, however, a bad repulse for the 
Grays. Kirby Smith, one of their generals, writing of the battle in the 
year 188 8, said: 

"Our repulse at Pleasant Hill was so complete and our command was 
so disorganized that had Banks followed up his success vigorously he would 
have met with but feeble opposition on his advance to Shreveport." But 
Banks, following his orders, could but retire. Still, as he retreated, the 
Grays kept constantly harassing his rear, when on the 24th another affair 



130 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 

occurred at Cane River. Finally, on April 25, Banks got his army back 
to Alexandria, from which he had started March 26. 

The Navy, which had been advancing up the Red River, was notified 
of the battles and change of plans, and ordered to return to Alexandria. 
The sailing of the gunboats down the river was difficult in the extreme, 
because of the lowering of the water, making the channels tortuous, 
narrow and shallow, so that many of the vessels often got aground, when 
the Grays from the high banks would attack them. In some of their 
charges the Grays frequently reached the gunboats' decks, but they were 
driven off by streams of boiling water, and in the end, although they made 
desperate efforts at capture of the gunboats, not a single one was lost. 

Banks was compelled to wait at Alexandria many days to give time 
for the gunboats to get down. During this stay the writer was detailed 
as a guard over the mansion of a Doctor French to prevent the soldiers 
from committing depredations, and especially from taking the tank water. 
Many times during his term of duty, when a sickly looking soldier would 
plead for a canteen of tank water, and was about to be ordered off, kind- 
hearted Mrs. French would intercede and say, "Let that poor fellow have 
some." She had sons then fighting with Lee in Virginia. This custom 
of protecting private property was adhered to by Banks during all his cam- 
paigns in Louisiana. The boys of the writer's regiment will remember that 
but three companies under command of Major Smart, of Hoboken, accom- 
panied Banks' expedition up the Red River, and the rest of the regiment 
remained at Fort Butler, opposite Donaldsonville, under Lieutenant-Colonel 
Shaurman. 

Going back to March 2 6 to recount the movements of the navy co- 
operating with Banks on his ill-fated advance to Shreveport, Irwin tells 
us that "when Porter's fleet arrived at Alexandria the river was unusually 
and unexpectedly low for the season of the year, and in consequence the 
gunboats were unable to pass the i-apids just west of the town. The 
Eastport hung for three days on a rock in great peril. Then followed 
the hospital boat Woodford, which was wrecked in the attempt to pass 
the rapids. By April 5 five gunboats and thirty transports succeeded in 
floating safely above the obstructions. Those whose draft would not permit 
of passing the rapids consisted of seven gunboats and several transports 
which were obliged to remain below, the bare rock thus dividing the fleet 
in twain." 

During the month that that portion of the fleet ascended the river, 
the water had fallen six feet, and for more than a mile the rocks at the 
rapids laid bare. 

In order to get the hemmed-up vessels below the rapids, Engineer 
Lieutenant-Colonel Joseph Bailey proposed the construction of a dam in the 
river below the bare rocks. It was begun on April 30. The width of the river 
at the site was seven hundred and fifty-eight feet, and to dam up sufficient 
water to float the imprisoned gunboats it was necessary to make the dam 
seven feet high. The wings at either end were constructed in "crib," or 
square boxes, formed of heavy logs, after which they were filled with 
stone, bricks and old heavy machinery taken from nearby destroyed sugar 
houses and cotton gins. In the middle between these wings was left a 
gap of one hundred and fifty feet, that was finally closed by sinking four 



THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 131 



large coal barges. The construction of the clam was completed in nine days. 

Above the town was another bar, and after the dam was finished the 
water soon rose on this latter to such an extent as to give a depth of eight 
feet. Promptly three light draft gunboats got over and anchored in the 
basin of the dam. The next day, unfortunately, the pressure of the 
current, which was nine miles an hour, forced out two of the coal barges 
at the centre, tearing a gap of sixty feet, through which, as Irwin says, 
"the precious fluid madly rushed, to the chagrin of the builders." 

At the sight of this, Admiral Porter, mounting quickly a horse, gal- 
loped to the upper falls, and called over to the larger of the gunboats, the 
Lexington, to run through the gap. With full head of steam she made the 
plunge, the writer with nearly every other soldier off duty rushing down 
to the river banks to witness the inspiring sight. They stood silent in 
breathless suspense, as for a moment the Lexington struck — reeled — then 
suddenly rushed through, whereupon the pent-up feelings of the onlookers 
broke out in a loud roar of cheers that reverberated through the forests. 
Three other gunboats instantly followed and got through. Still six others 
were imprisoned above, being shoaled by the fast receding water. 

To save these Lieutenant-Colonel Bailey began the construction of other 
dams on the bar and rocks of the obstructing upper rapids, disposed in such 
a manner as to force the water, coming from above to concentrate and 
flow into one narrow channel. Every man who could wield an ax, negroes 
and troops, went zealously to work, and, incessantly laboring under the 
guidance of the engineers, succeeded in accomplishing the work in three 
days, and on the 12th and 13th the fleet was enabled to pass the danger 
zone. For this great achievement Bailey received the thanks of Congress, 
and was afterwards, on June 14, 1864, made a brigadier-general by Presi- 
dent Lincoln. 

During the construction of the dam Banks' army was virtually invested 
in Alexandria by Taylor's small army. Taylor's whole forces marched below 
the town, captured Fort De Russy, and intercepted the supply boats coming 
up. Then they endeavored to obstruct and delay Porter's fleet on its way 
down by sinking three captured vessels in the channel just above the fort. 

From one of the supply ships, coming up the river, they captured a 
large mail, and, when the army on its march south reached Fort De 
Russy, the ground there was found thickly covered with thousands of 
letters that had all been torn open by the captors. 

The writer spent an hour hunting among the mass in hopes of finding 
letters addre.ssed to him, but in vain. Still it was reported that a number 
of the soldiers were fortunate enough to do so. 

The fleet being now in navigable water, the expeditionary forces began 
on May 13 their return to New Orleans. 

As far down stream as Fort De Russy the army marched along the 
western bank of the river to protect the fleet, which was constantly being 
flred upon by the enemy from the opposite shore; there was hardly a 
smokestack that was not riddled by bullets, and some of the hulls had 
huge holes in them. 

Besides annoying the gunboats, the energetic Grays made frequent 
attacks on Banks' immense wagon train of captured cotton, and by killing- 
mules, would thus blockade the road and delay the march. 



132 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 

Reaching Fort De Russy the army then turned inland, leaving the 
navy to proceed alone. 

The Blues and Gi'ays had another set-to at Mansura Plains, on May 16, or 
as the place is called, Avoyelle Prairie. The edge of the plain was reached at 
nightfall by the rear guard of Banks' army and its enormous wagon train, 
that, when .stretched out along the road in single file, was forty miles in 
extent. The writer happened to be detailed that day as company cook, a 
duty to which every private of the company was required to take his turn. 

To the unmilitary readers a little explanation is here necessary. In 
camp or garrison the company cook was kept busy supervising two negroes 
in preparing meals, but it was different during active campaigning, when 
each soldier carried in his haversack several days' rations, consisting of 
ground coffee, hard crackers (hard tack) and raw salt pork or salt beef, and 
boiled in his tin cup his own coffee. On the marches it was only when beeves 
were captured that the company cook had anything to cook. At this 
time, however, as the country had been repeatedly scoured by both com- 
batants, not even this task of boiling fresh beef was left for the cook. As 
a fact, the army for many weeks subsisted on less than half rations, due 
to the capture by .the Grays of the supply boats at Fort De Russy. 

As company cook, the writer had been traveling all day with the 
regimental wagon. In passing an expo.sed point along the river bank one 
of the six wagon mules was shot. The falling of the animal held up the 
wagon train, and in a few minutes the canvas wagon covering was literally 
stripped into rags by the rapid volleys from the Grays' sharpshooters on the 
opposite shore. No one dared to approach the wounded kicking mule, until 
within a few minutes a couple of pieces of artillery came along and sent some 
shells across the river, when the firing of the Grays slackened sufficiently to 
allow killing the mule, rolling the carcass down the river bank, and pushing 
on with the train. 

When the writer awoke at dawn the next morning a most inspiring 
and sublime sight was presented to his view, never to be forgotten. 

The prairie, entirely denude of trees and shrub, might have been 
between two and three miles wide and some seven long. The rays of the 
ri.sing sun glistened upon the bayonets and banners of the thirty thousand 
troops, drawn up in massive close columns stretching clear across the 
whole width of the plain and hemmed in on either side by walls of dense 
pine forests. At a distance the army appeared like a huge blue carpet 
studded with beads made by the reflections of the morning light upon the 
guns and bayonets, and interspersed here and there with splashes of color 
formed by the waving flags of mounted staffs of the various generals. The 
cavalry on either flnak presented an effect of a vari-colored ribbon-border to 
the mass of blue. In front of the immense phalanx of troops could be 
seen, extending the entire width of the plain, the glittering guns, caissons 
and horses of the artillery. Behind the infantry was parked the thousands 
of wagons composing the train, each with its team of six mules in massive 
columns, making with their white canvas coverings a striking color contrast 
with the blue, while back of these again shone out another fringe of blue 
behind which stood out a wonderful effect of variegated colored ribbon pro- 
duced by the cavalry and artillery forming the rear guard. The whole 
enormous formation occupied perhaps two miles of the prairie's length. 



THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL. WAR 133 



At the sound of the bugle the whole pageantry took life, and moving 
forward under the scintillations produced by the glorious sun, creating an 
entrancing scene of grandeur impossible of description. 

A short march then ))rought to view in the distant part of the prairie 
a mass of Gray color expanding like an immense blanket across the plain, 
which as the Blues' phalanx approached, gradually unfolded until the 
ranks of the foe with colors flying was brought into full view. 

It seemed then that a pitched battle was now imminent. But the 
whole formation kept on with steady measured tread; the artillery from 
time to time galloped a short distance to the front, unlimbered and sent 
their messengers of death over the Grays' ranks, while the smoke from the 
guns added still a new color effect to the inspiring scene. 

About noon the writer joined his company, which was in the center 
of the front line, and he could distinctly discern the gunners of the enemy 
loading and firing their artillery, while the smoke from their guns rolled up 
like a great veil in front of their lines. 

With the shells of the enemy roaring and bursting over its head, the 
grand array of the Blue kept slowly moving forward, while the line of 
Gray, with equal cadence and precession receded. Now and then the cavalry 
on either flank would dash forward, wheel, fire and return. Thus, the 
steady tread and the roar of the artillery duel continued for an hour or so, 
when suddenly the Grays' formation dissolved from sight into the dark 
forests. This was a wise movement on their part, for their numbers were 
entirely too small to cope with the Blue's formidable battle array. In spite 
of the Grays' steady cannonading the loss to the • Blues was small, but 
Lieutenant Haskins' Battery F, 1st U. S., at one time got exposed to an 
enfilading fire from the enemy's guns and suffered severely. 

At length, about noon, the end of the prairie was reached, when the 
magnificent pageant of the Blues gradually began to melt away, as the army 
and trains deployed into single columns along the road. 

And now occurred a fortunate episode in the history of the 19 Corps' 
campaigns in Louisiana. Just as the troops emerged from the prairie, there 
was found a large brook of rapidly running clear, cold, sparkling water. 
Never before had such a sight met the eyes of the soldiers, and never again 
did it occur during their stay in the State. 

The next hold-up for the retreating army was the crossing of the Atcha- 
falaya River, at Simmesport, but Engineer Bailey's ingenuity solved the 
problem. Porter's fleet, having reached the place of crossing several days 
ahead of the troops, Bailey anchored side by side across the stream twenty- 
two of the gunboats, thus forming a bridge, by which troops, cannons and 
wagons were gotten safely over to the opposite shore. Taylor's Grays had 
been following and harassing their retreating foe, and, in their attempt to 
thwart the crossing of the Atchafalaya, brought about on May 19 a fierce 
encounter in which the Blues lost three thousand men. 

A short march brought Banks' army to Morganza Bend on the Mississippi, 
May 22, where the much-needed supplies awaited it, for during the march down 
from Alexandria the troops and animals had been subsisting on less than 
half rations. Here the 19th Corps was camped, and A. J. Smith's men were 
sent by transports up to Vicksburg, Mississippi. This disastrous campaign 
on the Red River, it was claimed, was inspired by greedy cotton speculators. 



134 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL. WAR 

and the purpose of the immense train of wagons was to convey the vast stores 
of cotton captured on the marches. * 

During the time of the movements of Banks, General Steel had been 
endeavoring to join him. He left Little Rock, Arkansas, on March 24, with 
some seven thousand troops. In his front opposing him were the Grays 
under General Price, whose cavalry divisions were commanded by Generals 
Fagan and Marmaduke. 

These forces first clashed on April 10, but. Price's object being to lure 
the Blues farther from their base of supplies, he gave them no serious re- 
sistance. Reaching Camden, on the Washita River. Ark., some one hundred 
miles north of Shreveport, as the crow flies, Steel, hearing of Banks' disaster 
at Sabine Cross Roads, wisely concluded to proceed no further. 

Price was then joined on April 20 by part of Taylor's men from the 
Red River under Kirby E Smith; these united forces fell upon Steel, com- 
pelling him to beat a hasty retreat, and, although he destroyed bridges in 
passing, he was overtaken on April 30, when a fierce fight occurred. Hurry- 
ing on "he reached Little Rock, with his half .starved and greatly reduced 
numbers, after the six weeks' of ineffectual work, thinking no longer of 
Halleck's wild scheme of conquest, nor even of Grant's wish to hold the 
Red River, but rather hoping for some stake of good luck to enable him to 
defend Arkansas and keep Price out of Missouri," says Irwin. He was 
shortly joined by A. J. Smith's returning troops, and Price was then held 
at bay. 

Banks stopped at Morganza Bend on the Mississippi River and en- 
trenched. The intense -heat and enduring drought prevented his foe from 
offering battle, but he hung aljout the outposts and did depredations of a 
guerrilla character. 

The 19th Corps suffered fearfully from disease during the six weeks' 
stay in the tropical heat and malarious surroundings. 

In order to permit Banks to assume personal charge of the Department 
of the Gulf the troops were put under the immediate command of General 
E. R. S. Canby, on May 11th, with the title of Military Division of West 
Mississippi. 

Grant's desire now was to have Canby and Farragut capture the port 
of Mobile, Ala., as its possession would give Sherrnan, who was then operating 
in Georgia again.st Atlanta, a near and surer base, beside insuring a safe 
line of retreat in case of emergency; again, as Grant remarked, " a line 
extending from Atlanta Ga., to Mobile, Ala., would split the Confederacy 
in twain." But the capture then of Mobile was not to be consummated, for 
the terrific losses of Grant in his campaigns against Lee in Virginia from May 
5 to June 15, estimated at sixty-one thousand men, compelled the abandon- 
ment of the Mobile expedition, and Canby was ordered to hurry the 19th 
Corps to Petersburg, Va. 

On July 3, 1864, the 1st and 2nd Divisions of the 19th Corps, under 
command of General Emory, started on steamships for Petersburg, Va. This 
was a joyous event in the career of the Corps, for, as Irwin says in his 
history of the 19th Army Corps, "To regret leaving the lowlands of Louisiana 
at this sickly season, the poisonous swamps, the filthy water, the overpower- 
ing heat and the intolerable mosquitoes was impossible; yet there can have 
been no man in all that host that did not feel, as the light, cool breezes 



THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 135 

of the Gulf fanned his brow, a swelling of the heart and a tightness of the 
throat at the thought of all that he had seen and suffered, and the remem- 
brance of the many thousands of his comrades who had succumbed to the 
dangers and trials on which he himself was now turning his back for the 
last time." 

Among the minor operations of the year on the western frontier of the 
war may be mentioned Price's Missouri raid. 

About the middle of September, 1864, General Price, with 10,000 Con- 
federates, attempted a raid into Missouri. The Blues, under Rosecrans, who 
was the Commander of the Department of Missouri, were greater in num- 
bers than Price's force, but they were greatly scattered throughout the State. 
General Curtis, who was commandant of the Arkansas Department, made 
the first effort to head off Price, and, on October 22, these forces clashed in 
the battle of Big Blue, where Price was defeated with the loss of all his 
guns. Again, he was beaten at Fort Scott, whereupon he retired to Arkansas, 
where, as Pollard says, "he went into winter quarters with his men in a 
worse plight than when they started from that State, and the conclusion 
of his campaign was an undoubted failure." 

These constitute the operations west of the Mississippi River during 1864. 



136 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL, WAR 

CHAPTER XIV. 
Sherman's Atlanta Campaign, 1864. 

Topography of Atlanta and Vicinity — Military Situation on May 1 — 
Battle of Resaca — New Hope Church — Forrest in Mississippi — Kenesaw 
Mountain — Crossing the Chattahoochie — Hood Supersedes Johnston — Fight- 
ing About Atlanta — Death of the Blues' General, McPherson — Cavalry Raid 
of Stoneman and McCook — Evacuation of Atlanta — Character of Hood — 
Sherman's Depopulation of Atlanta. 

The two principal campaigns for 18 64, as outlintd by General Grant, 
were that of the forces in Virginia against Lee's Army of Northern Vir- 
ginia, and that in Georgia under General William T. Sherman against the 
Confederate General, Joseph E. Johnston. These were intended to inflict 
staggering blows upon vital points in a region of the Southern Confederacy 
that heretofore had escaped the horrors of war. They were to take place 
on either side of the numerous parallel Alleghany ranges over one thousand 
miles apart. While simultaneous operations in Arkansas by General Steel 
against the Confederates under General Price, and an expedition up the Red 
River in Louisiana by Banks' forces against Richard Taylor were to com- 
plete the cordon of aggressive movements of the Union armie.o. The 
operations of the two latter expeditions having been recited in chapter 
thirteen. 

Draper gives the following useful description of how the Mississippi 
States were geologically formed from the Atlantic Coast States: 

"The range of mountains (Alleghenies), commencing near the Canadian 
frontier, follows in a general manner the course of the Atlantic Coast line 
for more than twelve hundred miles, being nearest to it in the Northern 
States, and gradually receding until in the cotton regions its distance is two 
hundred miles. The Indians of the North gave it the name of the Alleghenies, 
those of the South the Appalachians. Among Americans it passes indif- 
ferently under both titles. 

'It consists of a series of parallel foulds or flexures of the earth's crust, 
on the east side of which is a gentle inclining plain descending to the sea. 
To that plain great historical significance belongs. It was the seat of the 
English Colonial Settlements — the scene of the Revolutionary War. Between 
the Alleghenies and the Atlantic Ocean was the seat of power of the Con- 
federacy. The people of Georgia and the Carolinas viewed unmoved the 
disasters they had done so much to bring about upon the States of the 
Mississippi Valley, being themselves protected on the west by the impas.sable 
ramparts of the Alleghenies and on the north and south by the armies of 
Generals Lee and Johnston." 

And yet as the story unfolds it will be found that those regions, too, 
were to suffer the devastations of a cruel campaign. 

On May 1, 1864, General Sherman, then at Chattanooga ready to pro- 
ceed with the execution of that part of Grant's plan assigned to him, had 
the following forces under his command : 

The Army of the Ohio of thirteen thousand five hundred and fifty-nine, 
under General John M. Schofield; the Army of the Tennessee of twenty-four 



THE CAMPAIGNS OK THE CIVIL, WAR 137 

thousand four hundred and sixty-five, under General James B. McPherson, 
and the Army of the Cumberland of sixty thousand seven hundred and 
seventy-three, under General George H. Thomas, a total of nearly one hun- 
dred thousand men and two hundred and fifty-four guns. 

Opposed to him was the Confederate Army of the Tennessee, under 
General Johnston, then at Dalton, Ga., some thirty-five miles south of Chat- 
tanooga. As to the numbers commanded by Johnston and the provisions 
made by the Confederacy to defend Georgia we quote Jefferson Davis from 
his "Rise and Fall of the Southern Confederacy." 

"At this time the official returns show that the effective strength of the 
Army of the Tennessee, counting the troops actually in position at Dalton, 
and those in the immediate rear of that place, was fifty thousand — ^en route 
under Polk which joined Johnston later at Resaca. Johnston's army then was 
not less than sixty-eight thousand six hundred and twenty, excluding from 
the estimate the thousands of men employed on extra duty amounting, as 
General Hood stated, to ten thousand. The long ranges of mountains, 
penetrated by few and difficult roads and paths, and deep and wide rivers, 
seemed to render our position one from which we could not be dislodged or 
turned, while that of the enemy depended for his supplies upon a single 
line of railroad from Nashville, Tenn., to where he was operating, was mani- 
festly perilous." 

Sherman planned to follow in columns parallel to the Western and 
Atlantic Railroad which connected Chattanooga with Atlanta, Ga. 

In the first forty miles south of Chattanooga that railroad ran through 
the several gaps in the mountain ranges, then proceeded through a wide 
valley where it crossed two rivers: first, the Oostanaula, near Resaca, a 
dozen miles south of Johnston's entrenched position at Dalton; second, the 
Etowah, near Kingston, some thirty miles further south. 

After this the road entered another series of mountains through the 
important passes of Allatoona and Kenesaw; south of the latter it crossed 
the great River Chattahoochie, about fifteen miles north of the City of 
Atlanta. 

Sherman's route following this railroad was along rugged mountain 
passes and dreary dense pine forests in an unbroken desolate country, and 
he was compelled to cross the rivers on pontoon bridges constructed in 
nearly every case under the fire of the enemy. 

The dark glens of the first mountain passes were each made im- 
pregnable by the fortifications of the Grays, for every ridge and command- 
ing position from Dalton to the City of Atlanta had been armed to the 
teeth. "To breast these growing ramparts; to cross these mighty rivers, re- 
quired of Sherman's army over one hundred days of constant and incessant 
marching, with either skirmishing or battle, fighting to the death daily 
between the Blue and the Gray."- — Draper. 

Prior to Sherman's start, that is on February 25, Thomas had advanced 
with the Army of the Cumberland against Dalton, but finding, after a re- 
connaissance, the position too strong for his small force to attack, he halted, 
holding, however, one of the mountain passes called Ringgold as an ad- 
vanced position. 

About this time the Davis Administration intended to put Johnston's 
force on the offensive, but this was found impracticable in the face of the 
accumulating troops under Sherman in the front. 



138 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 

The tactics employed by Sherman all through his campaign, which 
ultimately terminated in the capture of the "Gate City" of Atlanta, Ga., was 
to manoeuvre his army so as to keep it between Johnston's forces and the 
latter's base of supplies, thus turning the various fortified places that ex- 
tended in a chain from Dalton to Atlanta, and avoiding the hazard and 
sacrifice of directly assaulting these formidable works. 

On May 4, 18 64, Sherman's army was disposed as follows: McPherson^ 
at Gordon Mills, near the old battlefield of Chickamauga; Thomas, at Ring- 
gold, a station on the Western and Atlantic Railroad in a mountain gap 
about twenty miles northwest of Johnston's forces at Dalton; Schofield, at 
Red Clay, northeast of Thomas, near the Georgia State line and directly 
north of Dalton. The object of the advance on Resaca, a fortified station 
on the railroad some eighteen miles direct-south of Dalton, was to compel 
Johnston to evacuate his position by threatening his rear. 

McPherson was sent with twenty-two thousand troops to make this 
flanking movement on Resaca, while Thomas and Schofield were to advance 
slowly and be ready to swoop down on Johnston in case he weaken his 
force by sending detachments to thwart McPherson. 

Thomas, on May 7, reached Tunnel Hill, about halfway between his 
starting point and Dalton, driving the Grays outposts into Buzzard Roost 
Gap, which had been made virtually impregnable. The next day Schofield 
also reached within a few miles of Dalton; on the same day that McPherson 
arrived at Snake Creek Gap a few miles northwest of his objective, Resaca. 
Here, however, McPherson's flanking movement failed, for, deeming the 
enemy about Resaca too strong to successfully attack, he fell back west- 
wardly to the next range at a place called Ship Gap. Sherman then de- 
termined to make the flanking movement with his three armies. Leaving 
General Howard with the 4th Corps to the north of Dalton, he moved the 
rest of his forces through Snakts Creek Gap and by May 13 had his army 
deployed to the west of Resaca. These movements were slow and painful 
in the extreme, as the country was rough, hilly and covered with a jungle 
of pine forests and dense underbrush. 

This new position of Sherman's main army at his rear, threatening the 
destruction of the railroad bridge at Resaca, compelled Johnston to retire 
from Dalton, which he quickly executed on May 12, using the well-made 
roads that had been constructed for the purpose between the two fortified 
places. Howard then promptly occupied Dalton without resistance. 

Resaca lies on the north side of the Oostanaula River at the railroad 
crossing. McPherson's wing which formed Sherman's right, had its right 
resting on the river, with Thomas in the center and Schofield on the left. 
Opposing McPherson was Polk; then came Hardee in the center, and Hood 
on the right of Johnston's forces occupying the fortifications. 

At one p. m., on May 14, Sherman made assaults near his left centre at 
two different places, his charges being obliged to force their way through 
the dense forests, underbrush and across deep ravines under a terrific fire 
from the Gray's artillery on the hills, and, though they gallantly took to the 
task, in both instances they were hurled back with a loss of over one 
thousand. 

Johnston, then at four p. m., took the offensive in an attempt to turn 
Sherman's left, and his charges were on the verge of success at dusk, when 
Hooker's corps, entering fresh into the firing line, forced the Grays back to 



THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 139 

their trenches with appalling loss. In the meantime McPherson had suc- 
ceeded in gaining a strong position on the right from which his artillery 
could enfilade the Gray's forts and which also commanded the railroad 
bridge. To dislodge McPherson's gunners, Johnston sent columns of chargers 
against them who fought desperately and incessantly until ten p. m., but 
were unable to push back their enemy. Sherman's engineers during the 
day constructed a pontoon bridge across the Oostanaula at Fay's Ferry, a 
few miles below Resaca, by which a division of McPherson's wing was 
crossed, and sent eastward, threatening the railroad at Calhoun, the next 
station, a few miles south of Resaca. Furthermore, a division of cavalry 
under Garrard was moving still farther south to cut the railroad. It cap- 
tured Rome, and destroyed arsenals and other military works at that place. 
The morning of the fifteenth opened with heavy skirmishing. Shortly 
after noon the Blues made several bloody but unsuccessful assaults. Finally 
a point at one portion of the ramparts was gained, where Hood's corps 
made desperate attempts to repel them. Under cover of darkness the Blue 
chargers dug out the earth at the end of a parapet, and hauled down the 
guns by means of ropes in the face of a merciless fire from the defenders 
above them. Then, rushing through the breach thus made, they drove 
the Grays out of their lunette, or moon-shaped fort. The loss to Sherman 
in these two bloody days at Resaca was five thousand, while that of Johnston 
was not as much by half. 

During the night Johnston retired across the Oostanaula, closely followed 
by Thomas. Schofield by obscure roads moved towards the northeast, while 
McPherson hastened over the pontoon bridge at Fay's Ferry. 

Forcing their way through impalpable dusty roads under a glaring 
hot sun, throwing aside everything that impeded their progress, the whole 
of Sherman's troops kept up the pursuit of their foe, and, after two of such 
exhausting days, the advance ran up against Johnston's forces, which had 
taken a stand at a place called Cassville, apparently ready to give battle 
in the open. Sherman urged his three wings forward, and on May 20, he 
had his army deployed in front of his enemy ready to accept the challenge 
to battle, but, as he says in his Memoirs, "the next morning found the enemy 
gone, and our cavalry was sent in hot pursuit." 

A short distance to the south of Cassville was the Etowah River, with 
only two means of cro-ssing; one the railroad bridge and the other a small 
one for wagons. 

In explanation of Johnston's not standing his ground at Cassville, it 
seems, as he himself relates, that on the 19th he met Polk and Hood late 
at night, who insisted that the position at Cassville was untenable, and that 
in their opinion the passage of the Etowah was imperative. To this John- 
ston replied: "I am not going to give battle here unless you all have your 
hearts in it." Consequently he ordered the retreat across the Etowah that 
night and the country north was abandoned to Sherman — "an order I have 
regretted ever since," said Johnston. 

The next stand now made by Johnston was at a very strongly fortified 
position about Allatoona Pass where the railroad crossed through another 
range of mountains. Jefferson Davis in his "Rise and Fall of the Southern 
Confederacy," says: "The region constituted a natural fortress of excep- 
tional strength; densely wooded; traversed by ranges of steep hills and 



140 T HE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 

deep ravines, with but few poor roads. It was difficult to imagine a 
country better adapted for defense, where the numerical superiority of an 
invading army was more thoroughly neutralized, or where necessarily 
ignorant of the topography it was compelled to advance with great caution." 
But Sherman was not entirely ignorant of the nature of the country, for 
he tells us in his Memoirs that in 1844 when a lieutenant he was sent on 
an inspection tour to this very locality and had noted well the topography, 
especially AUatoona Pass, Kenesaw, etc. "I therefore knew," he says, "that 
the AUatoona Pass was very strong; would be hard to force, and I resolved 
not even to attempt it, but to turn the position via Dallas." This move- 
ment he began May 23, fitting out his men with twenty days' supplies. 

Dallas was about fifteen miles southwest of the AUatoona Pass and ten 
miles directly west of Marrietta, where were located the very formidable 
works of Kenesaw. 

Pollard thus described from the Southerner's point of view the move- 
ments which followed these attempts of Sherman to turn AUatoona Pass. 

"On the 25th the Federal advance under Hooker struck Stewart's 
division at New Hope Church, and a hot engagement of two hours ensued. 
The next two days there was constant skirmishing and fighting. Late in 
the afternoon of the 27th, Clerburne's division assaulted McPherson at 
Dallas (Sherman's extreme right) and left six hundred of the enemy's dead 
on the field. But these sharp encounters were of little significance; for it 
was evidently not Sherman's intention to make a great battle and risk 
dashing his army to pieces in trying to force the pass at AUatoona." In the 
meanwhile Thomas and Schofield were completing their developments, 
gradually over-lapping Johnston's right, that is to say, moving northeastward, 
and thus extending Sherman's lines nearer and nearer the railroad, the 
nearest point of which was Acworth, about midway between AUatoona Pass 
and Marrietta, Pollard says: "When on the 30th of May (Sherman's forces) 
had reached the railroad station near Marrietta, Johnston had no other 
choice than to abandon his position at New Hope Church, and retreat to the 
strong positions of Kenesaw, Pine and Lost Mountain." 

During all the movement continual bittle was in progress; "cannon and 
musketry resounded day and night along a line varying from six to ten 
miles." 

By June 1 Sherman got possession of all the roads between AUatoona, 
Acworth and New Hope Church, where the cavalry under Garrard and 
Stoneman occupied the evacuated pass. 

Sherman's formation at this time faced east; with McPherson on the 
right, Thomas at the center and Schofield on the left, but on the 4th, 
McPherson was shifted to the left in front of Acworth. 

Heavy rains now occurred for several days during which army move- 
ments were practically impossible. 

AUatoona Pass, seven miles north of Sherman's position, was fortified 
and made the Union force's secondary base. Colonel Wright with six hun- 
dred of his engineering corps in the meantime rebuilt the bridge at Resaca, 
making a record in military engineering of constructing a railroad bridge 
over six hundred feet long within one week. In this connection, Sherman 
Bays in his Memoirs, that in a conversation with General Johnston after the 
war, the latter asked him who his. engineer was; Sherman told him it was 



THE CAMPAIGNS OP THE CIVIL. WAR 141 

Colonel Wright, a civilian. Johnston then replied: "We always had to 
admire those engineering achievements." He then related that at one 
time as his General, Wheeler, was reporting to him the destruction of the rail- 
road, he interrupted Wheeler to draw his attention to the trains actually 
moving over the very bridge he was reporting as destroyed. 

In his official report Sherman, in speaking of the results thus far 
achieved, said: "We have in a month's time, with a force not very superior 
to the enemy's, compelled him (Johnston) to fall back nearly one hundred 
miles, obliging him to abandon four different positions of unusual strength 
and proportions, have fought him six times, captured twelve guns, three 
colors, and over two thousand prisoners, and have destroyed important 
foundries, rolling mills at Rome and in AUatoona Pass." 

Before proceeding with the Kenesaw battles, we must relate a brilliant 
success achieved by the Grays under Forrest in Northern Mississippi, where 
he intercepted at Guntown on June 10, an expedition under General Sturgis 
on its way from Memphis to protect and operate in Sherman's rear. These 
forces he drove back in utter rout and confusion, pursuing them over one 
hundred miles, and capturing many prisoners. This stroke uncovered Sher- 
man's rear and made things look blue, as it left him one hundred and 
thirty-five miles from his base at Chattanooga in constant dread that cavalry 
might get upon his line and destroy it. In speaking of Forrest's operations 
Sherman says in his Memoirs that when he heard of Sturgis' defeat: 
"I expected that this would soon be followed by a general raid on all our 
roads in Tennessee. General A. J. Smith, with two divisions of the 16th 
and 17th Corps which had been with Banks up the Red River, had returned 
from that ill-fated expedition. On hearing of Sturgis' defeat I ordered 
Smith to go out from Memphis and renew the offensive so as to keep Forrest 
off our roads. This he did, finally defeating Forrest at Tupelo on the 13th, 
14th and 15th of July, and he so stirred up matters in Northern Mississippi 
that Forrest could not leave for Tennessee." 

Sherman says: "Kenesaw, the bold and striking twin mountain, lay 
before us with a high range of chestnut hills trending off to the northeast, 
terminating to our view in another peak called Bushy Mountain. To our 
right was the smaller hill, Pine mountain, and beyond it in the distance, 
Lost Mountain; Kenesaw, Pine and Lost Mountains forming a triangle. Pine 
at the apex, Kenesaw and Lost Mountain at the base, covering perfectly the 
town of Marrietta and the railroad south to the Chattahoochee River. These 
summits were covered with batteries, and the spurs were alive with men 
busy felling trees, digging pits and preparing for the grand struggle * * * 
the whole country had become one vast fort; Johnston must have had fully 
fifty miles of connected trenches, with abatis and finished batteries. We 
crowded them day and night; pushed them from tree to tree, from ridge 
to ridge, from earthwork to earthwork; from their first position to their 
last a vast skirmish blazed from morning to night along ten to twelve miles 
of infantry lines." 

On June 14 the Grays met with a sad loss of their General, Leonidas 
Polk, who was instantly killed by a cannon shot which, it was said, Sherman 
himself had directed to be fired into a group of Confederate officers of whom 
he caught sight from a hill. Sherman in his Memoirs admits directing a 
battery to fire into a group of officers, but says that he had left the battery 
prior to its firing the shot that killed Polk. Polk had been educated for 



142 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 

military service, but just before the war served as an Episcopal Bishop of 
Louisiana. 

As Johnston kept contracting his lines between Kenesaw and Lost 
Mountain, Sherman followed him up, and by the 15th Thomas and Schofleld 
gained two miles, while McPherson on the left lapped well around to the 
north end of Kenesaw. On the 16th Johnston abandoned Lost Mountain, 
when Sherman's right was swung around so as to threaten the railroad 
south of Marrietta. For several days the rains again fell in torrents, making 
any movement almost impossible, but, as Sherman says, "still skirmishing 
was going on. The enemy and ourselves used the same form of rifle 
intrenchments, viz.: the trees and bushes were cut away for a hundred 
yards or more in front, serving as an abatis, the parapets four to six feet 
high; the dirt taken from a ditch outside formed a covered way, and the 
parapet was surmounted by a head log. The men of both armies became 
extremely skilful in the constructing of these works," but later on both 
armies employed negroes in order to spare the energies of the troops. 
"During the campaign," says Sherman, "hundreds if not thousands of miles 
of similar intrenchments were built by both armies, and, as a rule, 
which ever party attacked they got the worst of it." 

At that part of Sherman's line near Kulp House, Hooker in switching 
off by himself was vigorously assaulted on .Tune 22, but finally after hard 
fighting repulsed his assailants. 

Sherman on June 27 made two determined assaults on the enemy's 
works, one by McPherson's wing on the left and the other by Thomas at 
the centre, besides which incessant skirmishing was maintained along the 
remainder of the lines. Sherman says that Johnston's position was unusually 
strong. 

The Southern historian, Pollard, in describing the terrific fighting, says: 
"These bloody encounters were but the slaughter of thousands, for the 
chargers never came in contact with the Confederate works; they were swept 
by a fiery torrent of shot and shell, and when the attack was withdrawn 
more than three thousand of the enemy were scattered over the rugged 
ground dead or bleeding." Of this ghastly experiment Sherman was satisfied 
to write: "Failure as it was, and for which I assume the entire responsi- 
bility, I yet claim it produced great fruit, as it demonstrated to Johnston 
that I would assault and that boldly." 

Finding that the capture of the Grays' works about Marrietta by assault 
was too hazardous, Sherman resorted to rrianeuvering in order to turn John- 
ston's position as he had done before. To this end on July 2, McPheirson's 
wing marched around to the extreme right and moved five miles south to 
Turner's Ferry on the Chattahoochie River at a place about fifteen miles 
south of Marrietta. 

Johnston detecting this threatening move on his rear, the next day 
abandoned his Kenesaw works, and at three p. m., just as his rear guard 
was leaving Marrietta, Sherman in person entered the town. 

Johnston made his next stand at a fortified camp near Smyrna, twelve 
miles north of the railroad crossing of the Chattahoochie River, and six 
miles below Marrietta. Here from the 4th to the 9th of July fierce battling 
occurred. Sherman's formation surrounding Johnston's "Tete du pont" was 
as follows: McPherson on the extreme right reaching to the Cliattahooahie 
at Turner's Ferry, ten miles below the railroad, with Stoneman's cavalry still 



THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 143 



further down stream; Thomas at the centre, and Schofield to his left; Gar- 
rard's cavalry working eastward to Rosswell where a good crossing of the 
river was found. The river at the railroad flowed almost due west, while a 
few miles up stream it turned almost at right angles northward, which 
brought Rosswell directly east of Sherman's center and eighteen miles above 
the railroad. 

During the night of the 9th Johnston crossed the river safely with his 
whole army, and took up position at Pine Tree Creek a few miles south of the 
railroad bridge. 

The Chattahoochie was a deep rapid stream with only one or two poor 
fords, and hence required the construction of pontoon bridges by Sherman's 
engineers. Johnston's position at Pine Tree Creek made it ditflcult and 
hazardous for Sherman to reach the southern side of the river. Sherman, 
however, so maneuvered as to give Johnston the impression that it was to 
the south of the railroad he intended to cross, his real aim being, however, 
by rapidly shifting masses of troops from his right to the left, to cross above 
and flank his foe. Leaving Stoneman's cavalry and some troops at Turner's 
Perry to make a feint, he ru.shed McPherson around to the extreme left 
near Rosswell. 

In the meantime, at Soap Creek, a few miles below Rosswell, the engineers 
had constructed pontoon bridges by which Schofield's wing was rushed 
across the river and took up a strong position on high ground. Again about 
two miles below Soap Creek another pontoon bridge was erected at Paice's 
Ferry, ready for Thomas' crossing. Then followed the making of another 
bridge at Rosswell for McPherson's wing. Thus Sherman had now three 
points of passage over the river above Johnston's position, with good roads 
leading to Atlanta, the buildings of which were in plain view of the en- 
couraged Blues, only eight miles away. 

Johnston, finding his army's flank threatened, now retired to the outer 
works of the city. 

Resting a few days, Sherman sent the cavalry to break up the railroad 
near Montgomery, Ala., General Rousseau accomplishing the task with 
but small loss. 

Sherman's supplies now came from Nashville, three hundred miles to 
the north by a single track railroad that was frequently broken up, trains of 
stores being captured by the ever active enemy, to avert which required the 
detaching of considerable forces to protect the trains and road. 

The excellent field telegraph kept Sherman and Grant at Petersburg, Va., 
in close communication. 

Sherman's next move was made on July 17 and 18, by sending McPher- 
son across the river at Rosswell; pushing rapidly southwest, he reached the 
Augusta Railroad, eighteen miles east of Decatur. Thomas also quickly 
crossed the river, and, by the 19th, Sherman's army was deployed to the 
east and north around Atlanta, with its heavy fortifications occupied by the 
Grays. 

On the 17th, General Johnston had been relieved of the command of 
the Confederates, and succeeded by General Hood. 

Pollard, the Southern historian, in his "Lost Cause" dwells at length on 
the removal of Johnston; he says "the fact was that he was subject to a 
deep intrigue in Richmond, to displace him from the command of the army, 
whose affections and confidence he had never ceased to enjoy. * * * General 



144 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL, WAR 

Bragg, the military adviser of President Davis, visited Johnston in his lines 
around Atlanta; never apprised him that his visit was of an official nature: 
put together everything he could to make a case against Johnson, and re- 
turned to Richmond with the alarming report that he was about to give up 
Atlanta to the enemy. In a letter later on, Johnston gave proof that the 
report of Bragg was nonsense. "The news of Johnston's removal and the 
appointment of Hood by the fiat of Davis struck a chill in the Confederate 
Army such as no act or menace of the enemy had ever done." 

Grant, in his "Memoirs," speaking of Johnston's removal says: "The very 
fact of a change of commanders being ordered under the circumstances was 
an indication of a change of policy, and that now they would become the 
aggressors — the very thing our troops wanted. * * * Yov my own part I 
think that Johnston's tactics were right. Anything that would have pro- 
longed the war a year beyond the time it did finally close, would probably 
have exhausted the North to such an extent that they might then have 
abandoned the contest and agreed to separation. 

The tactics pursued by Johnston were the same as employed by Lee 
in his move from the Rapidan to Richmond during the Campaign of 1864 
against Grant, which received increased approbation at every stage of that 
retreat. 

All through the four years' war, the feeling existing between not only 
Generals Sherman and Johnston, but between all the leading generals of the 
two combatants, was characterized by honor. Nothing illustrates this better 
than when, twenty-nine years after the War, General Johnston, then aged 
and feeble, traveled from Washington to New York City to act as pall- 
bearer at General Sherman's funeral. 

To Sherman the appointment of Hood added new spirit. 
Hood now with reinforcements from the southwest had an effective army 
of forty-one thousand infantry and artillery and ten thousand cavalry. 

While Thomas, on July 20, was moving in columns across Pine Tree 
Creek and around to the north of Atlanta, he temporarily left a gap in the 
national lines. Hood, quick to see his chance, sallied forth out of the forts 
of Atlanta, and sent two divisions under command of Generals Walker 
and Bates of Hardee's corps into the opening between Sherman's lines, and, 
while the attack by the Grays was manfully and gallantly executed, they 
got caught, however, between the fires of the two separated wings of the 
Blues' line and in a very short time suffered a loss of twenty-five hundred 
before they got away. McPherson, on Sherman's left, the next day, ad- 
vanced to within a few miles of the city's defenses, but Hood, swinging 
around, attacked this wing and drove the advancing columns back with 
a loss of sixteen guns. 

It was about this time that the Blues lost their devoted General Mc- 
Pherson, who inadvertently advanced too far from the front of his line, and 
fell unexpectedly among the enemy's pickets, where he was killed. 

The Grays, under General Cheatham at the centre, were also successful, 
capturing six guns, but General John A. Logan, who had succeeded McPher- 
son, was ordered to charge, and his assault resulted in the recapture of the 
lost batteries. 

"Hood's next attack on the 22nd," says Pollard, "was one of the most 
reckless, massive and headlong charges of the war. When immense prices 
were paid for momentary successes and the terrible recoil of numbers gave 



THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 145. 

a lesson of the temerity of the Confederate commander." After this repulse 
Hood now retired within the inner lines of the Atlanta defenses. 

During the night five thousand Blue cavalry, under Stoneman, advancing 
from the east, and four thousand commanded by McCook from the west, 
joined forces about twenty-five miles south of Atlanta and destroyed a portion 
of the Macon Railroad, which was later, however, easily repaired by the 
Gray's engineers. Stoneman then asked permission of Sherman to proceed 
south and release the many thousands of Union captives then imprisoned at 
Andersonville, about one hundred miles south of Atlanta. With certain re- 
strictions Sherman consented. Stoneman's mission, however, not only failed, 
but he was made a prisoner himself, and General McCook nearly met the 
same fate. 

During the 26th and 27th of July, Sherman so maneuvered his army 
as to encircle Atlanta on the north, his right extending to Ezra Church, a 
few miles northwest of the city, while his left took up position near the 
Decatur road to the northeast of the city. 

Hood then reformed and attempted to give Sherman's forces at Ezra 
Church a crushing blow. The charge was made in open country and the 
Grays met with terrible slaughter — six times were they rallied in the on- 
slaught against the stubborn Blues. Those who reached the breastworks of 
rail piles were either killed or dragged over as prisoners. This murderous 
engagement lasted from noon until four p. m., when the chargers disap- 
peared, leaving their dead and wounded on the field between the lines, their 
loss being reported at five thousand. 

This failure of Hood to dislodge Sherman's right; the latter now free to 
move by that flank south and west of Atlanta; still he had to encounter 
heavy fortified positions which extended for miles around the city. 

Draper mentions certain changes in the commanders at this time in 
the Union Army. Hooker, considering himself disparaged by the assign- 
ment of General Howard to the command of McPherson's Army of the 
Tennessee, was relieved at his own request, and his corps given to General 
Slocum. Palmer, of the 14th Corps, was also superseded by General Jeffer- 
son C. Davis, and General Stanley succeeded General Howard. 

Sherman's next object was to get to the west and south of Atlanta and 
destroy the Macon Railroad. This was strongly fortified along its entire line. 
Rapidly rushing troops from his left around to the right, he kept extending his 
flank towards the railroad. 

Hood, observing this movement, followed it by gliding along parallel 
to Sherman. Twice on the 5th and 6th of August the Blues made inef- 
fectual attempts to break the Grays' lines, which now stretched along fifteen 
miles — extending in a crescent from East Point, a station on the Macon 
Railroad about five miles southwest of the city, around northeastward to 
Decatur on the Augusta Railroad . 

SI ..dii, deciding that to carry this position of the enemy was only 
possible by direct assault and at great sacrifice, resolved to maneuver to the 
south. First, however, he made such arrangements as to give Hood the 
impression that he intended to begin a siege of the city, and, for this pur- 
pose, among other preparations, had broughts from Chattanooga several 
heavy long range four and one-half inch guns. These were fired night and 
day, causing fire and destruction in the city. Then he sent some ten thousand 



146 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 

cavalry around to the east and north, who restroyed the railroad near Cal- 
houn, and captured a large quantity of storeS. 

On August 25, loading up his wagons with fifteen-days' supplies, Sher- 
man commenced the next move. First moving away that portion of his 
forces north of the city, he gave Hood the impression that he was retiring 
and giving up the siege. Marching the troops by circuitous routes, Sherman 
in a day got his entire army well to the Southwest of Atlanta. On the 29th, 
the whole army now moved eastward in three columns, that is to say, in 
three concentric circles around to the south of the city. On the left or inner 
circle was Schofield; at the center was Thomas, and the right or outer curve, 
Howard, who was aiming towards Jonesborough about twenty miles south 
of Atlanta. 

When Howard reached Jonesborough he halted after driving away some 
Grays who were guarding Flint River bridge, but the next morning he 
found himself confronted by a heavy force. Hood, observing Sherman's 
move, had hurried Lee's and Hardee's corps to Jonesborough, while he, with 
Stewart, remained at Atlanta. On the 31st of August Thomas and Schofield 
pushed east to the attack of the Macon Railroad. At the same time the 
Grays dashed out of Jonesborough at Howard, and, after two hours of des- 
perate, bloody fighting, were badly repulsed. During this engagement Thomas 
and Schofield, reaching the railroad, completely de.stroyed many miles of it. 

Sherman now began encompassing Jonesborough in the attempt to cap- 
ture Lee and Hardee, but those forces promptly retired southeastward. Hood, 
now finding Sherman's whole army between Atlanta and the other wing of 
his forces under Lee and Hardee, quickly recognized that he must evacuate 
Atlanta. He abandoned the city during the 1st and 2nd of September, blow- 
ing up the magazines, six locomotives, one hundred cars, also machine shops, 
depots and other works. "Atlanta is ours and fairly won!" Sherman tele- 
graphed Washington on September 2. General Grant, then besieging Lee in 
Petersburg, Va., ordered a salute to be fired in honor of the victory with 
shotted guns from every battery bearing on the enemy's works, along his lines 
of thirty miles. 

Sherman in token of his success received from President Lincoln a 
Major-General's Commission in the regular army. 

The Army of the Tennessee which Sherman started out to annihilate 
was still in existence, for Hood's forces now numbered over forty thousand. 

Sherman pursued the retreating Hood a few miles beyond Jonesborough, 
but, finding him strongly entrenched, abandoned the pursuit and returned 
to Atlanta. 

Eggleston reports that General Longstreet once said of Hood: "Hood is 
one of the best division commanders I ever knew. He would fight anybody, 
anywhere, at any time, but he has no more discretion than any pugnacious 
schoolboy might be expected to manifest." 

During the campaign from Chattanooga to Atlanta Sherman losses 
numbered thirty-three thousand. The Grays' losses are reported to have 
been forty-two thousand. 

Sherman now made Atlanta his depot for supplies that had to come 
three hundred miles by a single track railroad," constantly harassed at nearly 
every step by the enemy's active cavalry. He said: "I am not willing to 
have Atlanta encumbered with the families of our enemy." He therefore 



THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL. WAR 147 

sent off to Gneral Hood four hundred and forty-six families and burned 
up all buildings except churches and dwelling houses. 

The writer in passing with his regiment through the city in 1866 was 
deeply impressed at the desolate sight of the burned city, and the abject 
and pitiful appearance of the poor people. Conspicuous among the build- 
ings remaining intact was the imposing structure of the Masonic Temple, and 
he could not help recalling with deep sorrow Sherman's now trite saying, 
"War Is Hell." 

The southern hi.storian Eggleston in his "Confederate War" says of 
Sherman's order to depopulate Atlanta: "The depopulation of Atlanta by the 
fiat of a military commander stands out in relief as the only occurrence of 
the kind that marked or marred the conduct of war on either side. It 
must be judged upon its own merits, without parallel or precedent to guide 
the mind that enquires concerning its humanity or its inhumanity." 

While Sherman was in Atlanta, a noteworthy interview occurred between 
himself and Governor Brown of Georgia, in which he intimated to the Gov- 
ernor that, if he would withdraw the Georgia troops from the Confederate 
Army, he, Sherman, would confine his men on the march to the sea to the 
highways, and would pay for all supplies taken from the country; other- 
wise his march would pursue the desolating lines of warfare. In speaking 
of this event Eggleston says: "The negotiations came to no practical result; 
the march was made and the desolation of it was well nigh unmatched in 
the world's annals. The intercourse is interesting as showing the condition 
into which the events of the great struggle had brought the southern mind." 

In desperation over the disasters which befell his armies, Jefferson 
Davis seemed at this time to have lost control of himself. He called on 
Hood and instructed him to abandon Georgia, and make a sortie with his 
army into Tennessee. With great surprise to Sherman, Hood then, on Sep- 
tember 29, crossed the Chattahoochie River on what was to prove his fatal 
expedition north. There being nothing to hinder him, Sherman could now 
march from Atlanta unmolested to the Atlantic Coast. This he accom- 
plished during November and December, as we shall relate later. 



\errf"' 



148 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 

CHAPTER XV. 
Hood's Tennessee Campaign, 1864. 

Hood's March to Nashville — Battle of AUatoona — Johnsonville — Spring 
Hill — Franklin — Nashville — Retreat of Hood. 

It was supposed by the Davis administration, that the offensive move- 
ment by Hood into Tennessee would draw Sherman from Georgia, in which 
case Hood would have an opportunity to fight the Union army in detail, but 
the removing of the only army between Sherman and the interior of the 
South and sending it on a perilous expedition North had been characterized 
as dementia on the part of the Confederate Administration, or as Pollard 
puts it: "To exchange the military advantage of interior lines for the grati- 
fication of a delusive invasion was the device of a politician, not of a soldier, 
a bid for temporary applause." 

Learning of Hood's intended raid north, Sherman, on September 29, the 
same day that Hood crossed the Chattahoochie, dispatched General Thomas 
with one division of the 4th and one of the 14th Corps in haste to Tennessee. 

At the beginning, Hood's course lay north along the old battlefields and 
route of the Campaigns of Sherman and Johnston, and, reaching AUatoona 
Pass, October 4, made preparations for a determined assault on the small 
garrison there. Sherman, leaving General Slocum at Atlanta, followed Hood 
with the rest of his forces. 

Colonel Tourtellett, with 800 men, in a well arranged blockhouse, com- 
prised the garrison at AUatoona. Sherman signalled General Cross, then at 
Rome, thirty-five miles northwest of the pass to hasten to Tourtellett's as- 
sistance, which he later did, taking with him 700 men. The little garrison 
of 1,500 men was, on October 5, desperately assaulted by between 4,000 and 
5,000 men under General French, the result being a bloody repulse for 
French, both sides losing very heavily, the loss of the Blue's being nearly 
one-half of their number, with General Cross and Colonel Tourtellett 
wounded. 

Sherman, who witnessed the fight from Kenesaw, said: "I deemed the 
defense of AUatoona Pass so handsome that I issued special orders to the 
whole army regarding it." French had destroyed a considerable part of 
the railroad, but Wright's engineers quickly got it back again. 

Hood passing Resaca, Rome and the places made famous by the terri- 
fic fighting between Sherman and Johnston during the summer before, 
finally reached Dalton (the place from which Johnston started in May) on 
October 16, and captured the garrison; then, pushing south, he found his 
trains at Gadsden, Miss., in readiness to proceed north into Tennessee on 
what proved his fatal march to Nashville. 

It is almost beyond conception the endurance displayed by Hood's Grays, 
who had during the summer been not only constantly fighting but continually 
on the go, and now they were again ordered on a hurried tramp into Ten- 
nessee. In T. A. Dodge's excellent "Bird's Eye View of the Civil War," the 
writer, who was a lieutenant-colonel in the United States Army, says: "The 
Confederate armies, both in the east and the west, were always ready to move 
with less transportation than our own, partly because they possessed less 



THE CAMPAIGNS OP THE CIVIL. WAK 149 

material and issued rations and equipage more regularly to the men. Certain 
it is that the Southern soldier did his wonderfully efflcient work on a basis 
of victuals, clothing and ammunition which generally would have kept a 
Federal force in camp as unfit to move. But even they had sometimes to 
delay their march for rations." 

Sherman now dispatched by rail General Schofield with the 23rd Corps to 
Chattanooga to join Thomas, and wired to Grant asking to be allowed 
to proceed on his march to the sea, protesting against following Hood, as 
that was the cherished idea of President Davis. He insisted that Thomas could 
accumulate about Nashville at least 50,000 troops, which would be ample to 
prevent Hood's advance north. Grant, therefore, assented, and on Novem- 
ber 10, Sherman started from Kingston with the 14th, 15th, 17th and 20th 
Corps, Kilpatrick and Garrad's cavalry, back for Atlanta, cutting off his 
telegraph communications with Grant. Then occured the strange and 
dramatic event of two hostile armies hurrying in opposite directions into 
an enemy's country, Sherman's destination being Richmond, Va., 1,000 miles 
away, and Hood's objective Nashville, 500 miles north. 

Hood's advance had attacked, on October 26, the Blues' garrison at 
Decatur, Miss., but, not succeeding in the capture, he brushed aside a force 
of cavalry, and then made a pause on the north side of the Tennessee River, 
near Florence, a place about midway between Decatur and the famous 
battleground of Corinth of 1862. His force now numbered about 54,000. A 
day or two later his cavalry under Forrest captured a gunboat and three 
transports. On November 2, at Johnsonville, he compelled the Blues to re- 
treat, which they did so hastily that they had to burn three gunboats, eiglit 
transports and a million and a half dollars worth of stores to prevent them 
falling into the hands of the enemy. 

Schofleld was to push on to Thomas and avoid getting into an engagement 
with the enemy. Thomas, then at Nashville, was strenuously organizing a 
motley army of 60,000, composed of A. J. Smith's portion of the army of the 
Tennessee, the 4th Corps and Wilson's Cavalry and a division of the 14th. 

Hood's route lay along a railroad which ran from Decatur northward 
to Nashville. Pulaski, Schofleld's objective, was a station about midway 
between the railroad terminals. Just north of that town the road crossed 
the Duck River, the next important town north being Franklin, about 
twenty miles south of Nashville. 

Forrest, with his cavalry, crossed the Duck River November 28, and the 
next day Hood's advance columns compelled Schofleld to retreat rapidly to 
Spring Hill. In this pursuit Forrest captured a considerable part of the Blues' 
trains. At 4 p. m. the Grays' advance came in contact with the Blues' rear 
guard at Spring Hill. With the object of cutting off the enemy's retreat, Hood 
liow ordered Cheatham to attack vigorously; this movement being slowly ex- 
ecuted, he ordered Johnson's division and Stewart's corps to the attack, but 
night coming on favored the Blue in their retirement. All during the night 
the Blues could be heard by the Grays getting away in the greatest dis- 
order; artillery wagons and troops intermingling and hurrying away. In 
spite of Hood's orders to pursue the fleeing foe, nothing was done, and the 
opportunity of capturing Schofleld's force was then lost. Hood in explana- 
tion claimed that "some of his generals had failed him at Spring Hill." 

Schofield in retiring was compelled to make a stand at Franklin, 
about eighteen miles south of Nashville; this was caused by the lack of 



150 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 

pontoons to get his army across the Harpeth River. He succeeded, however, 
in getting his artillery and wagons to the northern side of the stream, and 
then entrenched on the south of the town awaiting attack. As Jefferson 
Davis says in his "Rise and Fall of the Southern Confederacy," "the 
ensuing conflict was one of the bloodiest battles of the war. The position 
at Franklin was favorable for the defense; the Harpeth River by a short 
bend flows on two sides of the town and the works in front, forming 
a salient with flanks resting on the river, enclosed the town in something 
like a square, two sides being river and two sides entrenchments, the 
interior lines being strong and the outer ones new. Behind the town 
were two bridges, one on the main road, the other a pontoon." Con- 
tinuing, he says: "At 4 p. m. on November 30, the Confederates attacked 
and carried the first line of entrenchments; here the engagement was 
close and fierce, the combatants occupied the opposite sides of the 
entrenchments, our men carrying them in some places; many were killed 
entirely inside the enemy's works. Many of the Confederates were 
Tennesseans, fighting desperately to expel the invaders. The contest con- 
tinued until near midnight, when the Federals abandoned the place, leaving 
their dead and wounded behind. We had won a victory, but it was 
purchased at a fearful cost, 4,500, among them Generals Cleburne, Gist, 
John Adams, Strahe and Granberry. Around Cleburne lay thickly the 
gallant men who on his desperate a.ssault followed him." General Gordon, 
too, was made prisoner. Draper in describing this battle, says: "Some- 
times in battle there is a well marked moment in which the spontaneous 
act of a single man determines the issue. It was so at the battle of 
Franklin when the center was pierced and irretrievable ruin seemed impedding. 
Emerson Opdyke, who commanded the Brigade of Wagner's division, which 
had been placed in front to take the first assault of the enemy, seeing what 
had happened, without direction of any one, gave the order to his com- 
mand: 'First Brigade forward to the works,' and himself led the way. He 
forced back the enemy, and closed the gap." General Wood said: "It is 
not saying too much to declare that but for the skilful disposition made by 
General Opdyke (all of which was done entirely on his own judgment), the 
promptness and readiness with which he brought his command into action 
at the critical and decisive moment, and the signal personal gallantry he 
displayed in the counter assault on the enemy when he had broken our line, 
disaster instead of victory would have fallen on us at Franklin." This report 
was also endorsed by General Thomas: "Opdyke, who accomplished the 
critical exploit, had seen many of the great battles of the war. At Shiloh 
he had been twice wounded; he was at Chattanooga, and was one of the 
first to reach the crest of Missionary Ridge; was in the assault of Rocky 
Face; wounded again at Resaca; rendered important service at Peach Tree 
Creek, and was spared from the carnage at Franklin to perform other 
feats at Nashville." — Draper. 

At midnight Schofield withdrew to the northern side of the Harpeth 
River with a loss of over 2,000. A Northern writer states: "More heroic 
valor was never exhibited by any troops than was shown here by the Grays. 
These devoted troops were mowed down by grape and canister. Many of 
them were killed entirely inside of the works. Hood on the other hand 
used no artillery, being restrained on account of the women and children 
remaining in the town." The repulse of Hood at Franklin put his troops 



THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL, WAR 151 



in deep depression of spirits. They had counted on getting between Schofield 
and Thomas, destroying the former's army and forcing Thomas out of 
Nashville back beyond the Ohio River. Schofield reached Nashville, where 
Thomas had now some 56,000 troops well fortified. On the other hand, 
Hood's forces, including cavalry, were said to have numbered about 40,000. 

On December 2, Hood proceeded to invest Nashville. Cheatham was on 
the right, Lee at the center, and Stewart on the left, this main line occupy- 
ing high ground on the south side of Brown's Creek with cavalry on either 
flank. Here was laid a two weeks siege of Thomas' works. Grant, fearing 
that Hood would give up the siege and cross the Cumberland River and 
get himself in the Blues' line of communications, thus compelling Thomas 
to evacuate Nashville, was getting impatient of Thomas' delay in taking 
the offensive, so tired of urging action, he actually started from Petersburg 
to assume command himself. He had just reached Washington, he says, 
"when I received Thomas' despa,tch announcing his attack on Hood, and 
the result as far as the battle had progressed. I was delighted; all fear 
and apprehension were dispelled." The main cause of Thomas' delay was 
the abominable w'fet cold weather. For days the fields and roads were a 
solid sheet of ice over which it was impossible to move either horse or man 
or wheel. "The Blues still held Murfreeboro with a garrison of 6,000 
in forts," says Davis, "and a small force at Chattanooga and Knoxville. It 
was supposed that Thomas would take the offensive to relieve these garrisons 
and Hood hoped to capture Murfreesboro and open communications by rail- 
road to Georgia and Virginia, and he thought, if attacked by Thomas, he 
could defeat him and gain Nashville with its supplies and guns. The 
people of Tennessee were willing and able to furnish our army with supplies, 
and we had captured rolling stock to put the road to Pulaskie in operation." 

Battle of Nashville. Thomas' plan of attack was to make a feint on 
Hood's right, while he massed his main force to crush the enemy's left 
and then forge around to his rear. Hood's formation was: Stewart on 
the left, Lee in the center, and Cheatham on the right, while Forrest's 
cavalry was off on a raiding excursion on the right. The whole com- 
mand numbered about 44,000 men. Thomas' position was made up of 
A. J. Smith on the right, Woods in the center, Schofield and Steed- 
man on the left. Early in the morning of December 15, 1864, it was 
foggy, but the fog lifted by 7 o'clock, which enabled General Steed- 
man to make the feint on Hood's right. This threatening attack 
forced Hood to weaken his left and center, when General Smith and Woods 
then rushed into the main attack, and by 1 p. m. two redoubts had been 
taken. Schofield with his 23rd Corps was then pushed quickly far to the 
right of Smith, the cavalry in the meantime getting to Hood's left rear; 
these operations involved savage fighting all along the entire line until 
nightfall, resulting in the Grays being forced back at every point, with 
heavy loss, including 15 guns and 1,200 prisoners and a large quantity of 
stores. 

During the night both combatants readjusted their lines. Thomas 
kept Schofield and the cavalry on the right, Smith and Woods at the 
centre, with Steedman still on the extreme left. Hood transferred Cheatham 
to his left; Stewart held the center, with Lee at the right. Under cover 
of darkness, Hood reformed his line some two miles to the rear of his 
original position, a very strong one on the "wooded crests of closely con- 
nected hills." 



152 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL. WAR 

Thomas opened the attack on the second day by sending heavy columns 
against Cheatham and Stewart, while his cavalry kept gaining ground to 
Hood's rear. About 1 p. m. an assault by Steedman on the left was made by 
two brigades of white troops and Morgan's brigade of colored men. These 
chargers rushed across an open plain, and were received by a crushing fire of 
grape and canister, through which the assailants moved quickly until they 
neared the hill crest, when the Grays' infantry, reserving their ammunition, 
rushed forward and, delivering a galling fire, caused the chargers to reel, 
waver and fall back, leaving their dead and wounded, white and black mingling 
together. Schofleld's and A. J. Smith's commands on the right immediately 
rushed in and carried everything before them, breaking Hood's line in 
many places, capturing cannons, and, among the thousand or more prisoners, 
four generals. 

Steedman's repulsed white and black chargers, now hearing the yells 
of victory to their right, reformed and renewed their charge on Overton 
Hill, and, though under heavy fire, succeeded in carrying the works, 
capturing guns and prisoners. Hood's army now fled in hopeless con- 
fusion, pursued for miles until nightfall. 

Pollard says, in speaking of the epoch of this battle, "at 4 p. m., 
when the day was thought to be decided for the Confederates, there 
occurred one of the most extraordinary incidents of war. It is said General 
Hood was about to publish a victory along his whole line, when a Florida 
brigade of Bates' division, which was to the left of the Confederate center, 
gave way before the skirmish line of the enemy. Instantly Bates' whole 
division took the panic and broke in disorder the moment a small breach 
was thus made in the Confederate lines. The whole of two corps unac- 
countably and instantly fled from their ditches almost without firing a gun. 
It was a disgraceful panic; muskets were abandoned where they rested 
between the loopholes of the breastworks; everything that could impede 
flight was thrown away as the fugitives fled wildly from the battlefield. 
Such an instance of sudden unlooked for wild retreat, the abandonment of 
a victory almost won, could only have happened in an army where through 
demoralization the consequence of long, heavy, weary work and of tre- 
mendous efforts of great endeavors where success is not decided already 
lurked in the minds of the troops, and was likely to be developed at any 
time by the slightest and most unimportant circumstances." 

In the retreat, the Gray cavalry under Chalmers had barricaded 
themselves, but this was soon broken up by Hatch's division, and a large 
number of prisoners were captured, the rest of the defenders fleeing south- 
ward. 

The trophies of the Blues for the two days' battle were 4,462 prisoners, 
including 287 officers and 53 guns. The Grays abandoned on the field 
their dead and wounded. 

The pursuit by Thomas was mercilessly kept up. Hood attempted 
to make a stand at Franklin, but was too weak to do so. The heavy 
rains interfered with the pursuing Blues, for, as the flying Grays crossed 
the different streams, they destroyed the bridges over the swollen rivers. 

Pollard says: "Hood succeeded in escaping across the Tennessee, but 
only with a remnant of the brilliant force he had conducted across that 
river a few weeks before, having lost from various causes more than 
10,000 men, half of his generals and nearly all his artillery. Sueh was 



THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 153 

the disastrous issue of the Tennessee Campaign, which had put out of 
existence, as it were, the splendid army Johnston had given up at Atlanta, 
and terminated forever the whole scheme of Confederate defenses west of 
the Alleghenies." 

It was Forrest's brave cavalry, acting as rear guard, which enabled 
Hood on December 27 to gain the southern side of the Tennessee. Thomas 
reported of them that "the rear guard, however, was undaunted and firm, 
and did its work bravely to the last." After Thomas' army had ceased 
in the pursuit, General Palmer with 600 cavalry continued south and over- 
took and destroyed a train of 110 wagons and 500 mules. He burned 
the former and killed the latter; then, forcing his way to Decatur, which 
he reached January 6, 1865, he gave the last blow of the campaign at a 
distance of 200 miles south of Nashville, which Hood had invaded on 
December the 15th. 

Hood resigned January 23, 1865. Most of the survivors of his army, 
as well as those of Thomas' army had been continually marching and 
fighting over two hundred days, many times half clad, or half fed, tramp- 
ing through exhausting heat, in drenching rains and bitter cold, in a 
country of abominable roads, climbing rugged mountains, and bridging 
many deep and rapid rivers. 

A fitting close to the story of Hood's expedition is the following order 
sent by General Grant to Thomas on receipt of the news of Hood's retreat 
from Nashville, and in which he speaks apprehensively of Forrest: 

Washington, December 15, 1864. 

"Major-General Thomas: 

"The armies operating against Richmond have fired two prolonged 
guns in honor of your great victory. Sherman has fully established his 
base, and I hope to be able to fire a salute to-morrow in honor of the fall 
of Savannah, Ga. In all your operations, we hear nothing of Forrest. 
Great precaution should be taken to prevent him from crossing the Cum- 
berland or Tennessee rivers below Eastport. After Hood is driven as far 
as possible to follow him, you want to reoccupy Decatur and all other 
abandoned points." 

U. S. GRANT, 
Lieutenant-General. 
After the defeat of Hood, Grant had intended to send Thomas and his 
army raiding through Alabama, but it was finally decided to send A. J. 
Smith's corps to Canby against Mobile, and Schofield with the 23rd Corps 
to North Carolina to join Sherman as the latter marched northward from 
Savannah. Thomas with the remainder of his forces continued to operate 
in Tennessee. 



154 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 

CHAPTER XVI. 

Naval Operations, 1864-1865. 

Southern Privateering — Battle Between the Alahama and iiearsarf/e— Capture 
of the Privateer Florida — The Battle of Mobile Bay — Maritime Supremacy of 
the North — Capture of Fort Fisher — Battle of Kin(g)ston, N. C. 

At this point in our history, because of the bearing of some of the events 
on the next land campaign to be described, it is advisable to relate the naval 
operations of the year. The offensive actions were wholly on the Northern side, 
with the exception of the acts of the Confederate privateers. 

As the Confederacy had no navy, it resorted to fitting out vessels to prey 
upon the United States merchant marine. The history of the depredation of 
these privateers constitutes a chapter of interesting history that must be 
regarded as part of the Campaigns of the War. The Southern historian 
Pollard, says: "The privateering service of the Confederate States had not 
accomplished all that the public had expected from it; yet the sum of its 
results was formidable, and amounted to a considerable weight in the war. 

From the time the pilot-boat Savannah and the little schooner Jeff Davis 
sallied out in the first year of the war, terror had been struck into the entire 
commercial marine of the North. The Sumter, carrying nine guns, under 
command of Captan Raphael Semmes, was the first really formidable experi- 
ment of a Confederate privateer. After capturing a number of vessels as 
prizes, she was abandoned at Gibraltar, in January, 1862, as being unseaworthy. 
Since then the two most famous Confederate privateers were the Alahama and 
the Florida, which scoured the seas from the East Indies to the Atlantic Coast, 
inflicting on the United States Commerce and tonnage the most disastrous 
results." 

Up to January, 1864, the list of vessels of the American commercial marine 
captured by the Confederate privateers was 193, having a total value of some 
five million dollars, making with their cargoes of ten million, an aggregate of 
fifteen million. Of these 193 vessels, 62 were captured by the privateer Alabama, 
26 by the Sumter and 22 by the Florida, not counting those captured by the 
Georgia and Tuscaloosa. But these privateering operations on the part of the 
Southern Confederacy had a most dramatic ending. 

In June, 1864, the privateer Alabama entered Cherbourg, France, for 
repairs. Pollard says: "A Federal steamer, the Kearsarge, was lying off the 
harbors. Captain Semmes in command of the Alabama might easily have evaded 
the Kearsarge. The business of the vessel was that of a privateer, and her 
value to the Confederacy was out of all comparison with a single vessel of the 
enemy * * * But Captain Semmes had been twitted with the name of 
"pirate" and he was easily persuaded to attempt an eclat for the Southern 
Confederacy by a naval fight within sight of the French coast, which contest 
it was calculated would prove the Alabama a legitimate war vessel, and give 
such an exhibition of the Confederate belligerency as possible to reverse the 
question of "recognition" in Paris and London. These were the secret motives 
a gratuitious fight with which Captain Semmes obliged the enemy off the port 
of Cherbourg." 



THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL, WAR 155 

The Alabama carried in broadside six 32-pounders, one 7-inch and one 8-inch 
guns. The Kearsarge commanded by Captain Winslow, a North Caroliniaji, 
who had remained loyal to his flag, was armed in broadside with six 32-pounders, 
two 11-inch guns and one 28-pound rifle. The two vessels were thus about 
equal in match and armament, and their tonnage was the same, but the 
Kearsarge had her midship covered with heavy chains which were concealed 
by a sheating of planks. On June 19, 1864, the Alahama steamed out seven 
miles and met her foe, when, within a mile of each other, the exchange of 
shot became rapid. Circling about each other, at a distance of from one- 
quarter to one-half a mile, the battle was kept up hot and furious for over an 
hour, when Semmes, flnding his ship in a sinking condition, crowded all sails 
and putting on full steam, headed for the coast. But it was too late. The 
inrushing water through the rents in her side put out the flres of the Alahama, 
which was being pursued by the Kearsarge, firing continuously. When the 
latter reached within four hundred yards Semmes raised the white flag. It 
is said that, even after the token of surrender was up, five shots were fired 
upon the sinking Alabama by the Kearsarge. Semmes and a number of his 
sailors leaping overboard were picked up by the English yacht Deerhound, and 
carried to England, and thus escaped capture. The loss on the Confederate 
ship was thirty, while none was sustained on the Kearsarge. 

The termination of the Confederate privateering service was brought about 
in October, 18(M, by the capture of the Florida. She had eight guns, and had 
eluded the Kearsarge at Brest, France, chased the Federal warship Ericson to 
within a few miles of New York, then captured the steamer Electric Spark en 
route to New Orleans, and, finally, in the early days of October, entered the 
neutral port of San Salvador, Brazil. The Federal ship Wachusett happened 
also to lie in the same harbor, under command of Captain Napoleon Collins. 

Shortly after midnight of October G, the Wachusett quietly bore down on 
the Florida, while part of the crew were ashore and the rest asleep. The blow 
delivered by the Wachusett, under full steam, struck the Florida astern instead 
of midship as intended. In drawing off Collins demanded the surrender of 
the privateer, and in a few moments boarded it, fastened a hawser, and then 
at full speed towed her out to sea. This being a breach of neutrality, a few 
but harmless shots were fired at the Wachusett from the Brazilian forts. Later 
on the Federal Government apologized to Brazil. Captain Collins went through 
a form of censure. "The diplomatic apology did not prevent the Florida from 
being held as a prize and afterwards being 'accidentally' sunk in Hampton 
Roads," says Pollard. 

About the time Sherman reached Atlanta the plan of closing up Mobile 
harbor, Ala., was to be undertaken by Admiral Farragut. This important port 
in the Gulf of Mexico and the one at Wilmington, N. C, were the only 
remaining places along the three thousand miles of the blockaded coast still 
made use of by blockade-runners in bringing to the Confederacy foreign 
munitions of war, and exporting cotton. 

The formidable obstructions intended to make the defenses of the harbor 
impregnable are thus described by the Southern historian, Eggleston: "The 
entrance is a narrow one, and was obstructed by every device that engineering 
ingenuity could place in the pathway of an invading fleet. The only passage- 
way into the harbor lay between Fort Morgan (to the east) on Mobile Point 
and Fort Gaines (opposite) on Dauphin Island, three miles away. Two miles 
of this narrow passageway had been completely obstructed by driving piles 



156 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 

into sand, thus forming a fence tlirough wliicli the stoutest ship could not 
force its way. From the end of this pile fenqp eastward towards Fort Morgan, 
there extended a quadruple line of destructive torpedoes. The only open way 
into the harbor was a narrow passage left for the use of the blockade runners, 
directly under the guns of Fort Morgan." 

Besides the two forts there were water batteries close under Fort Morgan 
and a fleet inside, consisting of a powerful ironclad ram, the Tennessee, and 
three wooden vessels, the Morgan, Gaines and Selma. The Tennessee was con- 
structed on the same lines as those of the famous Merrimac, and was com- 
manded by the same person, now Admiral Buchanan. 

In the early days of August, 1864, General Canby sent a division of troops 
from New Orleans under command of General Gordon Granger to force a 
landing on Dauphin Island. This expedition was followed by Farragut's fleet, 
consisting of fourteen wooden vessels and four monitors, some of which had 
two turrets; otherwise all were built on the model of the celebrated Monitor. 

On August 5, early in the morning and at flood tide, Farragut advanced 
to the attack of Fort Morgan and the water batteries, with the intention of 
running through the narrow channel into the bay. The monitors took the 
lead, followed by the fourteen wooden vessels lashed together in pairs. As 
the fleet approached the fort, the monitor Tecumseh ran foul of a torpedo and 
suddenly sank, carrying down all the men who were below; most of those who 
had been on deck were picked up by the other ships. 

The disaster to the Tecumseh caused the fleet to hesitate, and for a while 
the ships were huddled together in imminent peril under a fierce fire from the 
enemy's batteries. The slacking of speed on the part of the fleet was brought 
about by the most advanced ship, the Brooklyn, with her consort, stopping in 
dread of torpedoes and of meeting the same fate which befell the Tecumseh. 
Instantly Farragut gave the signal, "Damn the torpedoes! Go ahead," and 
pushing his own ship, the Hartford, with its consort, the Mettaconnet, past the 
Brooklyn, he took the lead under full steam through the terriflc and incessant 
fire at short range from the fort and the torrent of shot and shell from the 
fleet lying in the inner harbor. 

In order to get a commanding view, Farragut climbed into the rigging, 
and, to prevent falling to the deck in case of being wounded, had himself 
lashed fast. 

It was 8 a. m. as the Hartford passed the fort, quickly followed by the 
other vessels, when she was immediately assailed by the ram Tennessee, which 
made a vicious dash at her, assisted by the other three vsssels. Captain 
Dayton of the Hartford relates that, "we could only direct our flre on but one 
of them at a time; the shots from the others were delivered with great direct- 
ness; a single one killed ten and wounded five."- The Selma then retired toward 
Mobile. Quickly Farragut ordered the unlashing and separating of the double 
ships, whereupon the Mettaconnet and Port Royal gave chase to the fleeing 
Selma, which overhauled her after steaming three miles. One 100-pound shot 
sufficed — it killed and wounded many, among the latter her commander — the 
Selma then surrendered; in the meanwhile the Gaines, getting badly injured, 
was run aground. 

All this time a pitched battle was raging between the remainder of Far- 
ragut's fleet and the ram Tennessee, which had undertaken the task of defending 
the harbor alone against her powerful adversary. It was believed that with 
her formidable iron armor she would be able to destroy the wooden ships in 



THE CAMPAIGNS OP THE CIVIL, WAR 157 

the same manner that her prototype the Merrimac had sunk the Cumberland 
and Congress in Hampton Roads in 1862. Farragut had, however, covered his 
flagship with iron armor six mches thick, a thickness which up to that date had 
never been penetrated by the heaviest guns. 

Seeing- the Tennessee preparing to ram his flagship, Farragut ordered his 
whole fleet to rush in and attack the ram. The first vessel to strike the 
Tennessee was the monitor Monongahela, which gave a powerful blow under full 
head of steam that, however, did little injury. The Lackaivanna and Hartford 
each in turn then struck her. The latter in rasping along the side of the 
ram poured a whole broadside of nine-inch solid shot within ten feet range. 
At the same moment the Chickasaw made a stern attack, quickly followed by a 
fifteen-inch solid shot from the monitor Manhattan, which broke the iron armor 
of the ram's casement. In a second attack the three vessels named were 
joined by a fourth, the Ossipee. At the start the Hartford was accidentally 
rammed by the Lackawanna, which cut her side down to within two feet of the 
water line. Getting loose, however, she made a vicious plunge at the ram, 
and a few moments after Buchanan raised the white flag. Indeed, from the 
time when the Hartford struck her until the surrender the Tennessee had not 
been able to flre a gun, her port shutters being so badly damaged they could 
not be opened; besides she had lost her rudder. Buchanan was wounded 
in the leg, which was afterwards amputated, and his crew were in a smothering 
condition. The battle lasted one hour, the Blues losing one hundred and sixty- 
five killed, of which one hundred and thirteen went down on the Tecurnseh. 
Singularly enough there were no losses aboard the other monitors. But the 
forts were still in the hands of the Grays, resisting the combined fire and 
attacks from fleet and troops. It was not until the 8th, that Fort Gaines was 
compelled to surrender; this was soon followed by the blowing up of Fort 
Powell. Finally, on the 9th, Fort Morgan was invested, and, after a continuous 
terrific bombardment, it surrendered on the 23rd, yielding to the Blues nearly 
fifteen hundred prisoners and one hundred and four guns. 

The capture of the bay did not give to the Blues the City of Mobile, 
but it put at end the blockade-running at that port, which in itself was a 
most disastrous blow to the Confederacy, and another striking instance of 
the effectiveness of the naval supremacy of the North, which contributed so 
much to the final subjugation of the South. As Charles Francis Adams 
says in his "Studies, Military and Diplomatic," "The North's undisputed 
maritime supremacy made possible both Grant's operations in Virginia and 
Sherman's march to the sea," A Southern writer long after the war said: 
"Aptly did camp slang name the blockade the 'Conda.' It was the crush of 
the 'Conda' that squeezed us to death." 

After the capture of the forts guarding Mobile Bay, there was left to 
the Confederacy but one other port open to blockade runners, that of Wil- 
mington, N. C. 

The mouth of the Cape Fear River that leads from the coast to the 
City of Wilmington, was guarded by Fort Fisher, and numerous well placed 
torpedoes. As there were a vast number of inlets from the ocean to the 
harbor it was practically impossible for the navy effectively to seal up the 
port. Only the capture of Fort Fisher would put an end to blockade runners 
bringing in foreign supplies and taking cotton in return to Europe. 

While the capture of Fort Fisher would not only seal up the harbor, 



158 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 

Grant planned also to make Wilmington a new base of supplies for Sher- 
man's army, which was about to proceed northward from Savannah, Ga. 

In December, 1864, a fleet of 70 vessels under Admiral Porter, and 
6,500 troops from Butler's Army of the James under command of General 
Weitzel formed as expedition for the capture of Fort Fisher. The fleet 
was, as Grant says in his Memoirs, "the most formidable armada ever col- 
lected for concentration upon a given point." 

Contrary to Grant's intentions, General Butler took it upon himself as 
senior commander of his Army of the James to accompany and direct the 
expedition. 

After considerable delay, occasioned by heavy seas, the fleet and trans- 
ports were obliged to put in to Beaufort, S. C, for repairs and supplies, 
but finally they reached the objective point on December 23. 

During the fury the next day of a terrific bombardment by the fleet, 
which soon silenced the guns of the garrison in Fort Fisher, 3,000 of Weitzel's 
men were landed. 

General Butler had conceived a scheme of exploding a powderboat near 
the fort, with the intention of blowing up the enemy's magazines. A ship 
named the Louisiana with over 200 tons of powder stored aboard was towed 
to within some 800 yards of the fort and then exploded. But the attempt 
to injure the fort was a fizzle, no damage whatever being done to the 
works — in fact the garrison were not aware of the explosion until they 
read it in the newspapers the next day about the "fiasco of Butler's toy." 

Just as Weitzel's men were about to assault the fort. Butler called a 
halt, declaring that the place was too strong to attack except at great 
sacrifice of life, whereupon Weitzel's troops re-embarked and the transports 
returned to Hampton Roads. Porter with his fleet, however, remained on 
the scene. 

Weitzel and his men complained bitterly of Butler's interference, claim- 
ing that had they been allowed to make the attack they felt sure of the 
capture of the fort. 

For his folly Butler was relieved of the command of the Army of the 
James, which resulted in a rancorous discussion between himself and 
General Grant. Butler had never been popular with his soldiers; he was 
not a scientifically trained soldier, while Generals Smith, Weitzel and others 
under him were, and his ignorant interference with their operations caused 
not only the failure of Fort Fisher, but other failures before Petersburg 
and Richmond, of which we shall read. 

Determined on the execution of his plans, Grant fitted out another 
expedition for the capture of Fort Fisher, adding to Weitzel's force 1,500 
additional troops with a small siege train, and placing it under command 
of General Terry. 

As on the first occasion the expedition was beset by heavy weather 
during which the troops suffered greatly. 

From the Southern historian. Pollard, we have the Confederate side 
of the affair. He says: "General Braxton S. Bragg appeared again on 
the military stage, thrust there by President Davis in the second defense 
of Wilmington. A Virginian newspaper announced the event irreverently 
as follows: 'General Bragg has been appointed to command at Wilmington — 
Good-bye, Wilmington.' There was no confidence in this Confederate com- 



THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL. WAR 159 

mander, and although Fort Fisher had held out against a naval bombard- 
ment and the garrison was largely increased when Bragg took command, it 
was very much feared that the enemy would obtain with him some new 
advantage; would effect some surprise or succeed by some untoward event." 

Bragg placed a force under General Hoke north of the fort to dislodge 
any attempt of Terry's men making a landing. General Terry, however, 
selected a most advantageous place for landing, some six miles north of 
Hoke's lines, and succeeded on January 10, during a heavy bombardment 
of the fort by the fleet, in disembarking the greater portion of his force, 
and as Pollard says, "through imperfect vigilance, Hoke was surprised to 
find the next morning that during the night Terry's men had forced their 
way through the thick marshy underbush and had placed themselves 
between the cavalry and his main line, and were entrenched in trenches 
extending clear across the peninsular from shore to shore. Hoke sent some 
of his men back to reinforce the garrison, which was in command of 
General Whiting, and then by orders of Bragg retired inland." 

For three days the fleet poured a prodigious fire into the fort from 
its four hundred guns, during which time Terry's men advanced without 
serious loss to within a hundred yards of the land front of the fortifications. 
The fleet then were signalled to cease firing, and the" Nationals, forming in 
their charging lines spaced a few hundred yards apart, vigorously assaulted 
the works. 

The slacking of the bombardment permitted the exhausted garrison to 
leave their bomb-proof where they had been cramped up during the attack 
by the fleet, to man their guns. The onslaught by the charging Nationals 
forced Captain Bradley to give way from the sally port. The encounter 
of the combatants at the gate of the fort was a terrific hand to hand fight 
lasting from seven o'clock until ten in the night and in which 700 of the 
heroic defenders of the fort were killed or wounded. 

As Pollard says: "The Confederates made a heroic defence in which 
bravery endurance and devotion failed to overcome numbers, and they 
were obliged to retire out of the fort." General Whiting, about midnight, 
finding further resistance impossible, surrendered his 1,800 exhausted troops, 
that being all there remained of his original garrison of 2,500. 

Bragg, finding Fxart Fisher fallen, evacuated Wilmington, blowing up 
its other defensive works. Forts Caswell and Anderson, just as Porter's 
fleet was advancing up the Cape Fear .River. 

On February 19, Grant's plan was consummated by the Nationals 
occupying Wilmington unmolested. 

At this time, as we will learn, Sherman's army was nearing the end of 
its advance through North and South Carolina from Savannah. Bragg, 
hoping to prevent the union of the victors of Fort Fisher with Sherman, 
retired to Goldsboro, N. C. 

In anticipation of the capture of Fort Fisher, Grant had ordered Scho- 
field, with the 23rd Corps of Thomas' army, after the defeat of Hood in 
Tennessee in December to proceed east. These troops reached Fort Fisher 
on February 22, when Schofield assumed command of the district called the 
department of North Carolina, General Terry returning to his post in front 
of Richmond. 

General Schofield, as instructed by Grant, immediately moved on to 



160 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL. WAR 

Goldsboro, which lay nearly 100 miles directly north of Wilmington. He 
marched by two separate columns, one from Wilmington, the other from 
New Berne. The latter column was attacked at Kingston, N. C, a few miles 
south of Goldsboro, by Bragg, who, besides his own troops, had a division of 
the Army of the Tennessee under General Hill. The ensuing battle of Kinston 
resulted in a bad defeat for Bragg, who lost 1,500 prisoners. 

Bragg now finding that a strong force of the enemy had maneuvered 
to his rear, made a feint attack on them and then dexterously withdrew 
out of his perilous position. 

Schofleld's first column then proceeded without serious resistance and 
entered Goldsboro on March 21, 1865, while his second column from Wil- 
mington reached the same place the following day. 



THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 161 

CHAPTER XVII. 
Sherman's March to the Sea, 1864. 

Sherman Burns Atlanta — His Marching Orders — Sherman's "Bummers" — ■ 
Route of the March — Engagements at Macon and Griswaklville — Capture 
of Milledgeville and Augusta — Cavalry Fights Between Kilpatrick and 
Wheeler — Storming of Fort McAllister — Capture of Savannah. 

Having received assurance from General Thomas that he would be able 
to defend Tennessee against Hood's sortie, Sherman concentrated his 60,000 
troops at Atlanta. 

Getting the approval of both President Lincoln and General Grant of 
his proposed bold movement through Georgia to the Atlantic Coast, Sherman 
divested his forces of all non-combatants, and for the second time ordered, 
in the early part of November, his chief engineer to set fire to Atlanta. 
Of this conflagration, it is said that over two hundred acres of buildings 
were in flames at one time. "Some four or flve thousand houses were 
reduced to ruins, with but four hundred left standing as the melancholy 
remnant of Atlanta." — Eggleston. 

On the authority of Eggleston, Sherman, after the war, in speaking of 
his raid through Georgia, is reported to have said: "At Atlanta I was 
in the midst of the enemy's country. My nearest base of supplies was 
Chattanooga, a hundred miles away. That place itself was liable to 
siege, and it lay the width of two States away from any real and ul- 
timate source of supplies on the Ohio River. The enemy might cut it 
off at any time, and, even if he failed to do that, I could not defend the 
hundred miles of single track railroad that connected it with Atlanta. At 
Atlanta my army was in the air. Its communications were likely to be 
cut off at any moment. Obviously I must either retire northward from 
that place or move southward in search of a new base of supplies. As 
there was no force south of me, capable of resisting my advance in that 
direction, I decided to march towards the south, thus securing a new base 
for myself, within easy sea communications, with sources of supply at the 
North, and at the same time cutting the Confederacy in two. Again and 
more important still, demonstrating the nearly complete collapse of the 
Confederate power of resistance. So I decided to make the march and 
change my base. That is all there was to it. But the poet got hold of it 
and instead of a 'military change of base,' he nicknamed it 'March to the 
Sea.' " 

The poet referred to was George F. Root, the musician, who composed 
at the time the well-known patriotic song, "Marching Through Georgia." 

On November 8, 1864, Sherman issued the following order to his army. 

"The General commanding deems it proper at this time to inform the 
men and officers of the 14th, 15th, 17th and 20th Corps that he has 
organized them into an army for a special purpose well known to the War 
Department, and to General Grant. It is sufficient for you to know that 
it involves a departure from our present base, and a long and difficult march 
to a new one. All the chances of war have been considered and provided 



162 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 

for as far as human sagacity can. All he asks of you is to maintain the 
discipline, patience and courage which have characterized you in the past, 
and he hopes through you to strike a blow at the enemy that will have a 
material effect in producing what we all so much desire, his complete over- 
throw. Of all things the most important is that the men, during the 
inarches and in camp, keep their places, and do not scatter about as 
stragglers or foragers, to be picked up by hostile people in detail. It is also 
of the utmost importance that our wagons should not be loaded with any- 
thing but provisions and ammunition. All surplus servants, non-coinbatants 
and refugees should now go to the rear, and none should be encouraged to 
encumber us on the march. At some future time we will be able to provide 
for the poor whites and blacks who seek to escape the bondage under which 
they are now suffering. With these few simple cautions he hopes to lead 
you to achievements equal in importance to those of the past." 

As the army would be obliged to live upon the country traversed, the 
orders for the necessary foraging were to allow each brigade commander to 
form daily a company of foragers of fifty men, with one or two commissioned 
officers. These parties got the nickname of "Sherman's bummers." They 
would start out ahead of the army early each morning, and, when loaded 
up with supplies, return to the main lines and turn over everything captured 
to the commissaries. Sherman says in his Memoirs. "No doubt many acts 
of pillage, robbery and violence were committed, for I have since heard of 
jewelry taken from women and the plunder of articles that never reached 
the commissary, but these acts were exceptional and incidental. I never 
heard of a case of murder or rape. At no time could I have carried along 
sufficient food and forage for a march of 300 miles long, foraging in some 
shape was necessary." 

These foraging parties had many narrow escapes from Wheeler's cavalry 
and the Georgia militia that hung about Sherman's army all the time, and 
many a pitched battle between them was fought. From Atlanta ran two 
railroads; the Georgia Railroad east to Augusta, the Central Georgia road 
southeast to Savannah on the coast. A short distance from Atlanta was the 
important town of Macon, and almost due north of it, and between the two 
roads, was Milledgeville, the capital of the State of Georgia. A third road 
ran from Augusta to Savannah. 

Sherman's route ran along these roads, and the army destroyed them 
so effectually as to make them impossible of repair. This was done by 
burning the ties and heating and twisting the rails out of shape. 

For the most part the country traversed was a rich fertile region, rife 
with abundance, being workshops and granaries of the Confederacy into 
which an enemy had as yet never penetrated. But now a swath of destruc- 
tion sixty miles wide and three hundred miles long was to be made across 
the State of Georgia, and area equal in width to the distance between New 
York City and Trenton, N. J., and in length to the distance from the Goddess 
of Liberty in the harbor of New York to nearly the Canadian line. 

Of the completeness of the destruction executed, Sherman in his official 
report of his Georgia Campaign stated: "We have consumed the corn and 
fodder in the region of country thirty miles on either side of a line from 
Atlanta to Savannah, as also the sweet potatoes, cattle, hogs, sheep and 
poultry, and have carried away more than 10,000 horses and mules, as well 
as countless number of slaves. I estimate the damage done to the State of 



THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL, WAR 163 



Georgia and its military resources at $100,000,000, which have inured to our 
advantage, and the remainder is simply waste and destruction." 

The start was made on November 15, immediately after the burning of 
Atlanta. The position of the army on the march was: the right wing, 
consisting of the 15th and 17th Corps, under command of General Howard; 
the left wing, composed of the 14th and 20th Corps, under command of 
General H. W. Slocum; marching along the flanks of both infantry wings, 
the cavalry, numbering nearly 5,000 in two brigades, under command of 
General Judson Kilpatrick. 

Near Macon at Lovejoy Station a slight resistance was met with from 
3,000 Georgia militia under Major-General G. W. Smith, but these were 
easily driven off. General Smith always believed his small force was up 
against a whole division, the reason for this erroneous impression being due 
to the fact that the opposing brigade under Walcutt was armed with the 
new Spencer repeating rifle. Up to the introduction in 1864 of these breach- 
loading guns both armies had used the old muzzle-loading muskets. 

The Grays' main forces, numbering about 15,000, were at Savannah, 
the department being under the able commander. General Hardee. He 
sent General Smith to guard Augusta, as it was found that Macon was not 
Sherman's objective, for, outside of a dash into the town by Kilpatrick's 
cavalry, Sherman did not molest that place. At Griswaldville a force of 
Grays under General Phillip attacked some of the 15th Corps, but they were 
badly punished, losing in killed and wounded 500. It was pitiful, says one 
writer, to send the green Georgia militia against the hardened veterans 
of Sherman's army, and yet they fought bravely and desperately against 
overwhelming odds. 

Sherman had so concealed the objective point of his march that the 
Georgia Legislature, which was in session in the capital — Milledgeville — 
were surprised, on November 22. by the sudden appearance of the foe, and 
compelled to make a most precipitous and undignifled retreat from the town. 
In a spirit of fun some of the Blues filled the chairs of the two Houses; 
conducted a debate upon the political issues of the day, and, by a small 
majority, voted that Georgia return to the Union. 

Sherman kept the main lines of route southeastward towards Savannah, 
but in order to delude the enemy, he sent Kilpatrick north to make a demon- 
stration against Augusta, where he destroyed factories, arsenals and other 
works. In this venture two regiments, the 83rd Indiana and the 9th 
Wisconsin cavalry, were separated from the main line by the Grays under 
General Wheeler, but after desperate fighting they finally succeeded in 
cutting their way out. 

Kilpatrick then moved southwestward towards Sherman's main line, 
but when he reached Louisville, Wheeler again attacked him in his entrench- 
ments. The savage assault made by the Grays got so hot that Sherman was 
obliged to dispatch General Band's division of infantry to Kilpatrick's 
assistance. This forced Wheeler to retire, after which he was chased by 
the Blues northeastward as far as Waynesboro. 

On December 2 several charges and counter charges took place between 
Kilpatrick and Wheeler. Getting to Wheeler's rear the Blues pushed the 
Grays back, pursuing them fully eight miles, at the same time burning 
bridges and much property. Two hundred wounded left by Wheeler 



164 THE CAMPAIGNS OP THE CIVIL, WAR 



showed sabre wounds in testimony of the hard hand-to-hand fighting that 
occurred. 

On December 2, Sherman's army accomplished two-thirds of the 
journey in reaching Millen. So far the troops had been marching through 
the rich regions of Georgia. Now they were to march through flat sandy 
barren plains, thinly covered with great yellow pine trees, and sparsely 
inhabited by poor whites, where no supplies could be obtained. But 
Sherman's "bummers" had filled all the wagons with ample supplies for the 
▼narch through these desolate lands. 

Sherman, leaving Millen, chose for his route the narrow peninsula lying 
between the Savannah and the Ogeechee rivers, leading directly to the 
metropolis of Savannah, where he intended getting in communication with 
the blockading fleet and thus reaching his new base. By December 10 he 
had his lines within five miles of Savannah investing it. His left rested 
on the Savannah River, with the extreme right ten miles south on the 
Ogeechee. 

One of the defenses of Savannah was Fort McAllister, situated at the 
mouth of the Ogeechee River which enters the ocean a few miles south of 
Savannah. It was a large enclosure with wide parapets and a deep ditch 
with thickly planted palisades. It contained 21 guns, and, while it had 
resisted three bombardments by the ironclads, it was not suitably arranged 
or armed for land attack. 

Sherman, leaving General Slocum in command of the army, personally 
took W. B. Hazen's division of the 15th Corps for the capture of Fort Mc- 
Allister. Building a bridge over the Ogeechee some fifteen miles west of the 
fort he got Hazen's division to the south side of the river. 

Starting at daybreak of December 13, Hazen, by 11 a. m., reached 
within a short distance of the fortification. Here delay was caused by the 
necessity of slowly and carefully removing from the ground sunken torpedoes. 
He then advanced and soon succeeded in silencing the heavy guns of the 
garrison. At 4 p. m. the bugle sounded the charge. The regiment rushed 
in, vieing with each other to plant the firjt flag upon the ramparts. As 
the chargers closed in on the palisades, sunken torpedoes exploded, tearing 
many of the troops to pieces, while the hot fire of the 200 gallant defenders 
rained down upon them furiously. 

Pushing on, they entered into a desperate and bloody hand-to-hand 
struggle with the defenders on the ramparts and quickly caused the gallant 
outnumbered garrison to succumb. 

By the capture of the fort, Sherman was now in communication with 
Dahlgren's fleet lying in Ossabaw Sound, and he telegraphed to Washington: 
"I regard Savannah as already gained." 

General Hardee, who was in command of the Gray forces defending 
Savannah, on the night following Sherman's demand for the surrender of 
the city and his forces, evacuated the place, and by means of steamboats 
and rafts got his whole command safely across the Savannah River to the 
South Carolina shore. He burned all his stores and the shipyard, and sank 
two of his ironclads. 

Sherman, after taking possession of the city without molestation, tele- 
graphed to President Lincoln: "I beg to present you, as a Christmas gift, 
the City of Savannah." 



THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL. WAR 165 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

Grant's Campaign Against Richmond, 1864. 

Organization of Grant's Army — Cavalry Raid on Richmond — Battle of 
the Wilderness — Death of "Jeb" Stuart — Spottsylvania — The Bloody Salient — 
Failure of Butler's Attack on Richmond — Sigel's Failure in the Shenandoah 
Valley — Crook's Operations West of the Valley — Hunter's Victory at Pied- 
mont — Battle of the North Anna River — Grant Crosses the Pamunky — 
Battle of Cold Harbor — Losses — Grant Crosses the James — Siege of Peters- 
burg — The Crater — Minor Engagements. 

In the early part of the year 1864, as we have seen, General Ulysses S. 
Grant assumed personal command of the operations in Virginia, with the 
aim, as he wrote General Sherman, of "having the Union forces in Virginia 
pounding Lee, while those under Sherman in Georgia were hammering 
General Johnston, and Banks in Louisiana was forcing Taylor." 

Having recounted the campaigns of Sherman against Johnston in 
Georgia, and Hood against Thomas in Tennessee, and Banks' Red River 
Campaign in Louisiana, we will now review the operations which Grant 
personally conducted during the interim in Virginia against Lee. 

The National forces organized by General Grant for his offensive cam- 
paign in Virginia consisted as follows: 

Second Corps under General Hancock. 

Fifth Corps under General Warren. 

Sixth Corps under General Sedgwick. 

These three corps comprised the Army of the Potomac, and were placed 
under the immediate command of General Meade, the hero of Gettysburg. 
A fourth corps under General Burnside was added, which was to act inde- 
pendently for the reason that Burnside outranked Meade. The cavalry 
was commanded by General Sheridan, and the artillery by General Hunt. 

These forces numbered in all about 122,000 troops, with 300 guns. 
Besides this army in eastern Virginia, Grant had 20,000 under Benjamin F. 
Butler, of New Orleans fame, near Fortress Monroe, to which were shortly 
afterwards added 10,000 of General Gillmore's forces from North Carolina, 
the combined forces being christened the Army of the James. Furthermore, 
a column of 15,000, commanded by General Sigel, was in the Shenandoah 
Valley, and another force, under General Crook, in the Kanawha Valley, 
West Virginia. It has been estimated that at the commencement of the 
spring operations of 18 64, the entire National forces under command of 
General Grant throughout the entire War Zone nunnbered 662,345 troops. 

During the winter of 1863-4 the Army of the Potomac, under General 
Meade lay along the northern side of the Rapidan River, around Culpeper, 
confronting General Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. Culpeper is about 
fifty miles as the crow flies southwest of Washington, and about sixty miles 
in a direct line northwest of Richmond; Washington and Richmond being 
almost directly north and south of each other and about one hundred miles 
apart. 

At the opening of the campaign, in May, 1864, Lee's headquarters were 
at Orange Courthouse. His army consisted of Ewell's Corps on the south 



166 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 

bank of the Rapidan; Hill's Corps near headquarters, and Longstreet's 
Corps at Gordonsville. a station on the Virginia Central railroad, a few miles 
south of Orange Courthouse. These forces aggregated in all a strength of 
nearly 70,000, and occupied a line some twenty miles long, which was about 
right angles with Meade's position. 

During January and February, Grant, for the purpose of making a 
feint on Richmond, with the object also, if possible, of releasing the 
National prisoners at Libby Prison in that city, and above all of destroying 
as much as possible of Lee's railroad line to his base of supplies south, 
sent two columns of cavalry, one of 1,500, under General Custer, moving 
southwestward, the other of 5,000, under General Kilpatrick, pushing directly 
southward. Aside from destroying some mills, stores and railroad tracks, 
and getting for a short period within shooting distance of Richmond, these 
raids accomplished nothing of importance. 

In an attack by part of Kilpatrick's horsemen on the outer works of 
Richmond, they were not only badly repulsed by the defenders, who con- 
sisted for the most part of old men and departmental clerks, but were 
forced to retire eastwardly by another route. Another small portion of 
Kilpatrick's command under General Ulric Dahlgren, which had been 
endeavoring to maneuver to the northwest of Richmond, learning of Kil- 
patrick's failure, retired northeastward, and, falling into an ambuscade, was 
captured and Dahlgren himself was killed. 

Still aiming in demonstrations against Richmond, in the hopes of 
inducing Lee to weaken his command on the Rapidan by sending assistance 
to the Confederate capital. Grant ordered Butler with his Army of the 
James to the attack of Richmond on the east. 

This expedition started February 6, 1864, and was so poorly managed 
that nothing of importance was accomplished and Lee with his whole force 
Intact remained confronting Grant. 

Every preparation having been completed. Grant ordered a simul- 
taneous advance of the entire Union armies throughout the war zone on 
May 4, 1864. Sherman with nearly 100,000 troops began his Georgia 
Campaign against Johnston. Grant with 122,000 advanced to the attack 
of Lee. Butler with 30,000 was ordered to capture Petersburg, on the 
Appomattox River, some twenty miles directly south of Richmond. FYanz 
Sigel and Guillar Crook were to push into the Shenandoah Valley and 
destroy that magazine of Confederate supplies. Banks in Louisiana was 
to move to the attack of Shrevesport. 

Pollard, the Southern historian, says: "At this period Lee was greatly 
affected as he contemplated the disparity between the numbers of the 
National and Confederate forces." 

In an address to his army at the time, Lee said: "For your stricken 
country's sake, your wives and daughters, sisters and friends, be true to 
yourselves and our glorious cause. Never turn your back on the flag, nor 
desert the ranks of honor or the post of danger. The women of the South 
bestow all their respect and affection on the heroes who defend them." 

Grant in his Memoirs, says: "The armies now confronting each other 
had already been in deadly conflict for a period of three years with 
immense losses in killed and in deaths from wounds and sickness, and 
neither had made any real progress towards accomplishing the final end. 



THE CAMPAIGNS OP THE CIVIL WAR 167 

The two armies had been confronting each other so long- without any 
decisive result that they hardly knew which could 'whip'. Here was a 
Btand off." 

The first battle, the Wilderness, was one of the most remarkable battles 
in the history of warfare, abounding in startling incidents of repeated 
repulses and victories for both Blue and Gray, for, during the two days of 
bloody fighting on May 5 and 6, Dame Fortune played fickle with both sides. 
At the end of the series of incessant encounters neither side could claim a 
victory, for the lines occupied by the combatants at the end were in the 
same position as they were at the beginning. Probably never in the history 
of warfare did a battle rage continuously for two days under conditions or 
in a place so utterly unsuited for army movements. The region was a 
wilderness of tangled masses of stout saggy underbrush and worn out tobacco 
fields intersected by deep ravines. 

In this dense thicket, which covered several miles in extent, the firing 
musketry lines were at times within one hundred yards of each other, and 
yet the combatants were invisible, the one to the other. The fighting was 
confined to infantry, as neither cavalry nor artillery were able to operate 
in such impossible lands. 

At midnight of May 3 and 4, Grant's army began quietly crossing the 
Rapidan River at the old fords of Germania and Ely, the same which 
General Hooker used the year before at the time of the disaster to the 
Union cause at Chancellorsville. Grant's object was to get his army south 
between Lee's position and Richmond. While the movement to the west 
or by Grant's right flank would bring the operations into open country, and 
that by the left flank would bring the armies into country badly suited to 
military movements because of the numerous streams flowing southeast- 
ward and thence at right angles to the path of the Union army, nevertheless 
he chose the latter because the coast afforded excellent bases for his supplies, 
and at the same time the movement enabled him to keep his forces con- 
centrated. 

To Grant's crossing of the Rapidan Lee offered no resistance; Lee 
was on the alert, however, and determined to take the' offensive and 
strike the advance columns of the foe as they passed along the north 
edge of the wilderness. Grant on the other hand had contemplated that 
Lee with his vastly inferior force would naturally retire and cover 
Richmond. 

Two parallel roads traverse the wilderness, northward from Orange 
Courthouse, with an average distance between them of four miles, the 
western one called the "Turnpike," the eastern one the "Plankroad;" all 
the rest of the country between, and east and west of these roads was 
impassable, being the dense thicket of the wilderness. These two roads 
intersected the roads used by Grant. 

Lee sent Ewell's Corps north by the Turnpike, while Hill's Corps he 
ordered forward along the Plankroad. Near the northern end of the Turn- 
pike was "Old Wilderness Tavern," which later on Grant made his head- 
quarters. 

On May 5 Warren's Fifth Corps and Sedgwick's Sixth Corps, advancing 
in columns some five miles apart, unexpectedly ran up against Edward 
Johnson's division of Ewell's Corps, with Rodes in close support of Johnson, 



168 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 

both advancing along the Turnpike within three miles of Old Wilderness 
Tavern. The result of the first clash was the retirement of the Grays 
and the death of their General. J. M. Jones, while endeavoring to stay the 
rout. Just at the right moment General Stuart rushed forward and filled 
the gap made by Jones' fleeing brigade. Gordon's and Daniel's division 
then joined the line and charged, sending the victorious Blues back in 
confusion over a mile. In the meantime Hill's Corps, advancing by the 
eastern "Plankroad," quickly deployed and formed line with Swell's men, 
which mo-vement brought the united wings of the Grays against Warren, 
who was to the left of Sedgwick. Grant rushed Getty's division of 
Sedgwick's right to the assistance of Warren's threatened left. An attack 
. made now by Getty and Warren was repulsed by Pegram's division; this 
was followed by a furious onslaught by Hay's men which did not expend 
itself until they had forced the Blues to retreat in confusion for nearly a 
mile. "In advance of all others in the face of the attack, these splendid 
troops, ha\ing left nearly one-third of their number on the field, fell back 
with Pegram's gallant men to the general line of battle." — Pollard. 

In the meantime Hancock's Corps, which had been sent on a route 
to the southeast, was recalled and hurried to the support of Getty, who 
was in a most perilous situation. At 3 p. m. the fighting at this portion 
of the line was fast and furious. Attack after attack was made by Han- 
cock, extending into the night; in the last attack General Pegram fell 
severely wounded. Five hours of this terrific slaughter ended without 
advantage to either side. 

During the night of the 5th, Burnside's Corps made a forced march 
of some thirty miles; crossed both the Rappahannock and Rapidan rivers, 
and, by the afternoon of the 6th, took position on the firing line between 
Hancock and Getty and Wadsworth, the two latter being in advance and 
somewhat to the right of Hancock. 

Longstreet's Grays about this time reached a point ten miles from the 
battlefield. About 5 a. m. of the 6th, i^well made a feint attack against 
Sedgwick on Grant's right, while at the same moment Hill was to execute 
the main assault on Hancock, but the latter opened the battle first by 
ordering General Wadsworth to take the offensive, and strike Hill on the 
flank. This order was vigorously executed, throwing Heth's and Wilcox's 
Grays into confusion, and pushing them back upon Longstreet's advancing 
columns, which had not yet deployed into line. This disaster now placed 
Lee's army in jeopardy of being cut in twain. At 11 a. m. Longstreet with 
some select brigades, passing to the right, suddenly attacked Hancock's left 
and succeeded in driving Grant's line back upon itself in great confusion 
fully a mile. 

At the time of Hill's rout and in the moment of imminent defeat, Lee, 
it is said, appeared at the front and took personal command of Long- 
street's successful charges. Grant, in his Memoirs, in speaking of this 
momentous period, says: "If the country had been such that Hancock and 
his command could have seen the confusion and panic of the lines of the 
enemy, he would have taken advantage so effectually that Lee would not 
have made another stand outside of his Richmond defenses." 

Grant might have added that it was General Lee's masterful foresight 
that selected first such a place as the tangled wilderness in which to assume 



THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 169 

the offensive against an overwhelming adversary, and thus neutralize the 
disparity in numbers, and that his Napoleonic act of taking personal com- 
mand at a critical moment turned defeat into victory. As illustrating 
how ulterior events may affect the outcome of battle it will be remembered 
that, just at the time of Hill's retreat, an incident occurred which deterred 
Hancock from following up the pursuit of the flying Grays. It seems that 
in the morning Grant sent a part of Sheridan's cavalry to attack some of 
Hill's command under General Wofford, who was making a detour in an 
endeavor to get on Hancock's flank. It was the firing in this encounter 
to his east and rear that caused Hancock to pause. Then again another 
peculiar incident occurred nearly at the same time, to induce Hancock 
further to weaken his attacking columns. Word reached him that troops 
were seen moving in his rear, whereupon he detached a brigade to meet the 
supposed new foe, who, however, proved to be Union convalescents coming up 
from Chancellorsville to join him. In these encounters of Hancock and 
Hill, the Union General Wadsworth was killed, and shortly afterwards the 
Grays' General, Jenkins, was killed and Longstreet severely w^ounded, both 
being shot in mistake by their own men, just as a respite had taken place. 
After Longstreet's charge, both Grant and Lee gave orders to renew 
hostilities, but the intended encounters were prevented by the thicket 
catching fire. Draper, in his "Civil War," says: "That all during the 
afternoon in all directions the wounded men were straggling along or borne 
on stretchers through the thicket. The air was excessively close and made 
stifling by the smoke pervading the woods." Grant saj's: "Fighting had 
continued from 5 a. m., sometimes along the whole line, at others only in 
places. The ground fought over varied in width, but averaged three- 
quarters of a mile. The killed and wounded of both sides lay in this belt 
and could not be moved. Then the woods caught fire, and a great conflag- 
ration raged; still the fighting kept up until it became too hot for the 
men." During all the time of the ferocious battling between Hancock 
and Hill and Longstreet, Sedgwick and Warren on Grant's right were 
straining every nerve to force the Grays' left from their position, but without 
avail. Near dusk, when Sedgwick was obeying orders to fall back, his 
corps was viciously assailed by Gordon of Eweirs Corps, and his ranks were 
put into great confusion, in which he lost 3,000 prisoners, among them 
General Shaller, late of Englewood, N. J., and General Sej'mour. This suc- 
cess of the Grays now put Grant's army in a very perilous position, but Sedg- 
wick, just as night came on, reorganized his shattered troops, checked the 
onslaught of Gordon's men, and averted an imminent disaster to the whole 
army. The third day, the 7th of May, was occupied by both parties in recon- 
naissances and skirmishing along the whole line. The losses to Grant were 
18,000, including 5,000 prisoners; to Lee they were 10,000, few of whom were 
captured. "An appalling aggregate of destruction illustrated by no brilliancy 
of maneuvers, the battle was a bloody bush fight." — ^Draper. 

A few days after the battle of the Wilderness, the Southern cause lost 
its most famous cavalry general — the renowned J. E. B., or "Jeb," Stuart. 
It occurred on May 10, when a portion of Sheridan's cavalry under Custer 
and Merritt encountered Stuart's men at Yellow Stone Tavern. Leading 
his horsemen on a desperate charge Stuart fell wounded and died the 
following day at Richmond. 



170 THE CAMPAIGNS OP THE CIVIL WAR 

During the night of May 7, after the battles of the Wilderness, Grant 
commenced flanking tactics, by countermarching southward, that is to 
say, by keeping his left in place and doubling his right, he passed it in 
advance. The objective now was Spottsylvania, on the southern side of 
the Po River, about fifteen miles southeast of the Wilderness. 

As Warren's Corps during the night, moving from the right, passed 
Hancock's men on the extreme left, they were hailed with loud cheering 
which caused the Grays to believe another charge was in progress, and 
set them to firing vigorously, with, however, very little effect. 

This flanking movement of Gi-ant's gave Lee the impression that the 
Army of the Potomac was as of old retiring, and it is stated that he sent a 
telegram to Richmond saying that Grant was retreating to Fredericksburg. 
He ordered General Anderson, now in command of Longstreet's Corps on 
the right, to go into bivouac and start early in the morning for Spottsyl- 
vania Courthouse fortifications. And now again the fates of war interfered 
with both commanders' plans. 

While Grant's advance under Warren was silently making headway 
during the night, the forest fire in front of Anderson's men became so 
intense that he was obliged to move his line back out of the flames and 
dense smoke, and he then concluded to proceed to his destination at once 
instead of waiting for dawn. Thus by mere accident the Grays' advance 
reached Spottsylvania before the Blue. Besides this stroke of good fortune 
for the Grays another occurred for them, due to a confusion of orders on 
the part of Grant's forces. This is clearly explained by Grant in his 
Memoirs: "Sheridan's cavalry had had considerable fighting during the 
afternoon of the 7th, lasting at Todd's Tavern until after midnight with 
the field his at the close. He issued the necessary orders for seizing 
Spottsylvania and holding the bridge. over the Po River, which Lee's troops 
would have to cross. But Meade changed Sheridan's orders to Merritt, 
who was holding the bridge, and thereby left the road free for Anderson 
when he came up. Wilson was ordered to seize the town, which he did 
with his division of cavalry, but he could not hold it against Anderson's 
advancing corps, which had not been detained at the crossing of the Po, 
as it would have been but for the unfortunate change in Merritt's orders. 
Had Merritt been perVnitted to execute the order Sheridan gave him, he 
would have been guarding with two brigades of cavalry the bridge over the 
Po, which Anderson had to cross, and must have detained him long enough 
to enable Warren to reinforce Wilson and hold the town." 

As it was, when Warren's advance came up, they attacked Anderson, 
but were repulsed with heavy loss. In a second assault by Warren with 
his whole Corps, he succeeded in gaining an important position where he 
entrenched. Sedgwick, Hancock and Burnside were hurried to the sup- 
port of Warren before Lee could render help to Anderson. These move- 
ments were so slowly executed, however, that it was not until dawn when 
the forces joined. The principal delay was caused by a peculiar incident. 
It seems that Early, who commanded Hill's Corps at the time, had come 
by the same road which Hancock had taken, and when these forces 
met they naturally stopped to fight. In the meantime Warren, while 
waiting, continued fighting Anderson, but, as his attacks consisted in send- 
ing to the firing line only one division at a time against Anderson's whole 



THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 171 



Corps, nothing- was gained. Furthermore, during this memorable night 
of the 7th, there nearly occurred a great calamity to the Nationals — the 
capture by the Grays of General Grant. It seems that he and Meade, by 
taking a wrong road, were riding directly into the enemy's lines, when 
fortunately an engineer discovered the error just in the nick of time and 
showed them the right way. 

The position of the two armies about Spottsylvania at noon of May 8 
are described as follows: Lee occupied a semi-circle facing north enclosing 
the town; Anderson's forces on the left extended to the Po; Ewell came 
next, followed by Early on the right. On the Blue's side the 2nd Corps, 
under Hancock, was at the right; next was the 5th Corps, under Warren; 
next the 6th Corps, now under Wright, General Sedgwick having been killed 
in the morning by a sharpshooter while superintending the erection of a 
battery; Burnside followed Wright. This formation extended some six 
miles to the north of the Po. 

Later a part of Hancock's Corps was sent across the Po to Warren's 
left and another to the position of Wright. 

Grant says in his Memoirs: "The country was heavily timbered with 
occasional clearings. It was a much better country to conduct a defensive 
campaign in than an offensive one. Besides, while the streams Ny, Po, 
Mat. and Ta, all flowing nearly parallel and a few miles apart, were 
narrow with abrupt banks and could only be crossed by bridges on account 
of marshy bottoms." 

The forenoon of May 10 was_ mainly spent in heavy artillery firing. 
Later several charges by the Blues on the Grays' centre failed, during which 
the woods took fire, leaving many wounded to perish in the flames. A 
weak point being discovered in front of the 6th Corps, Colonel Upton, with 
twelve picked regiments, made an assault at 5 p. m. It came so sudden 
that the Grays broke, Upton's charges capturing 1,000 prisoners and several 
guns. It being found impractical to support the advantage gained, Upton 
was withdrawn; thus the day's hard fighting closed without result to either 
side, but with great cost of men to Grant. The next day nothing but 
skirmish-firing occurred between the combatants. Grant then sent the 
following dispatch to the War Department: "We have now ended the sixth 
day of hard fighting. The result to this time is very much in our favor. 
Our losses have been heavy as well as those of the enemy * * * We 
have taken over 5,000 prisoners in battle while the enemy has taken from 
us but a few stragglers. I propose to fight it out on this line if it takes 
all summer." 

On the 12th there occurred one of the bloodiest encounters of the 
whole war, brought about by an effort on the part of Grant's forces to 
capture a salient near Lee's center. 

A salient is the technical term for a place in a fortified line, which 
projects forward like a point or angle from the general line of the works. 
Troops and guns placed there can enfilade, or in other words, pour on a 
charging party from the salient a cross-fianking fire, which, with the firing 
from the front, generally places the assailants hors du combat. If, how- 
ever, the chargers succeed in capturing the salient, they in turn can send a 
raking fire front, right and left along the enemy's entrenchments, besides 
protecting themselves. 



172 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 

Early in the morning of the 12th, Hancock's columns, which had 
marched during the whole rainy night tt) join Burnside, got into position 
for the assault of the salient, while Wright 'and Warren maintained fighting 
on their respective fronts. During a dense fog, Hancok's chargers emerged 
from the woods, and, without firing a shot, marched in quick time against 
the "angle." When nearly half way to the enemy's line they suddenly 
gave forth a thunderous cheer, and taking the double quick rushed forward. 
Quickly tearing away the spiked abatis they got across into the salient, 
where they surrounded Johnson's division of Swell's Corps, taking three 
thousand prisoners, among them two generals, besides thirty-five guns. 
Hancock's victors then pushed on intending to cut Lee's army in twain, but 
they were shortly stopped as they ran up against a second line of entrench- 
ments behind which Ewell had retreated. Hill from the right and Ander- 
son from the left now rushed to Ewell's support, and, uniting against 
Hancock, he in turn was driven back. Wright's 6th Corps, was now hurried 
up to the support of Hancock; Warren and Burnside also began assault 
along their fronts; and soon battle was raging along the entire concaved 
lines. 

Five savage assaults were made by Lee's gallant men in their attempt to 
dislodge Hancock from their salient, and, although repulsed, they at many 
places planted their banner on the ramparts sheltering the Blues. To 
secure his position Hancock placed twenty of the captured guns against 
chargers. At this point Grant says in his Memoirs: "Five times during 
the day he (Lee) assaulted furiously, but without dislodging our troops 
from their new position. His losses must have been frightful. Sometimes 
the belligerents would be separated by only a few feet. In one place a 
tree eighteen inches in diameter was cut entirely down by musket balls. All 
the trees between the line were very much cut to pieces by artillery and 
musketry. It was three o'clock next morning before the fighting ceased. 
Some of our troops had been twenty-four hours under fire * * * At 
night Lee took a position in rear of his former one and by the following 
morning was strongly entrenched." 

Another contemporary writer says: "The angle of those works where 
the fire had been hottest and from which the Confederates had been 
driven * * * nien in hundreds, killed and wounded together, were 
piled in hideous heaps * * * some bodies had lain for hours under 
the concentrated fire of battle, being perforated with wounds. The writhing 
of wounded beneath the dead moved the mass at times; at times a lifted 
arm or a quivering limb told of an agony not quenched by the tithe of 
death. Bitter fruit this; a dear price it seemed to pay for the capture of a 
salient angle." — Draper. 

Leaving Lee and Grant grappling to the death at Spottsylvania, we 
must trace the doings of the forces under Butler on the James River and 
those under Sigel in the Shenandoah Valley, which were intended by Grant 
to co-operate with the Army of the Potomac. 

The Army of the James under General Butler set forward as did the 
Army of the Potomac and Sherman's Army in Georgia, in pursuance with 
General Grant's plan of campaign. Proceeding up the James River from 
Fortress Monroe, early in May, Butler reached without resistance City Point 
on the south side of the river at its confluence with the Appomattox River. 
In this position he threatened the city of Petersburg, an important railroad 



THE CAMPAIGNS OP THE CIVIL. WAR 173 

centre some 20 miles south of Flichmond. The Grays, under General Beau- 
regard, who had rushed all available troops from North Carolina, confronted 
him and forced the Nationals to move to the north side of the James. From 
May 13 to the 17th, Butler demonstrated towards Richmond with Beauregard 
hard after him. On the 16th, at Drury Bluff, a few miles southeast of 
Richmond, Beauregard attacked Butler, aiming to turn his right. The 
assault failed, due mainly to a dense fog. Butler was forced, however, to 
retire, after a loss of 4,000, to Bermuda Hundred, at a large bend in the 
James, a few miles northwest of City Point, where, as Grant said, "the 
Army of the James was afterwards bottled up." These operations of the 
Army of the James were, therefore, a failure, for nothing was accomplished 
with the exception of the destruction of a few miles of the Danville railroad, 
a short distance south of Petersburg by cavalry under Kautz on May 12, 
the date of Grant's charge on the Bloody Salient at Spottsylvania. Butler's 
position at Bermuda Hundred being easy of defense against Beauregard's 
small force of Grays, Grant was induced to withdraw from Butler the 18th 
Corps under General Smith, and this reached the Army of the Potomac in 
time for Grant's attack on Cold Harbor, of which we shall learn later. 

Butler's failure to carry out Grant's plans was largely due to his 
persistance in dominating the ideas of his subordinate Generals, Smith and 
Gillmore. These gentlemen were trained and experienced soldiers, while 
Butler, a Massachusetts lawyer before the war, was devoid of military 
education. Grant knew this, and at the beginning designated in his order 
to Butler, Smith and Gillmore as "commanders in the field." 

Observing General Sigel's command advancing up the Shenandoah 
Valley, threatening his magazine of supplies to the west, Lee about the 
middle of May dispatched General Breckinridge, with 3,000 troops, which 
could be very illy spared during the operations against the Army of the 
Potomac, to contend against Sigel. The only troops confronting Sigel were 
a small body of cavalry under General Imboden. These united with 
Breckinridge's 3,000, and also the boy cadets of the military institute at 
Lexington (the Alma Mater of many of the South's noted men.) With 
these meagre forces. Breckinridge formed a thin line of battle, without 
reserves; nevertheless, he assumed the hazardous plan of taking the offensive 
against his more powerful adversary Sigel. The clash occurred on May 15, 
at New Market, where the Grays' small force were not only the victors, but, 
besides badly whipping Sigel, captured six guns and a large number of 
small arms. The site of the battle of New Market lies directly west of 
that of the Wilderness. The disaster of Sigel caused his removal by Grant, 
who placed Hunter in his stead. It will thus be seen that simultaneous 
fighting was going on at Grant's line by Butler and Sigel. 

During the period of the battles between Grant and Lee, General Crook 
in the Kanawha Valley, dividing his forces into two columns, crossed the 
mountains to the east by two separate routes. One under Averell struck 
the Tennessee and Virginia railroad, near Wytherville, May 19, then pro- 
ceeded to New River and Christiansburg, where, after tearing up railroad 
tracks, burning bridges and destroying depots, it formed a junction with 
Crook at Union, a place about 20 miles directly west of New Market, and on 
the west side of that fold of the Alleghenies which forms the western 
I)oundary of the Shenandoah Valley. 

Thus the Federal forces during May, 1864, were approaching Richmond 



174 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL, WAR 

by four different routes, that is to say, first from the southeast along the 
James under Butler; and from the north by three columns, one under Grant 
moving through eastern Virginia; the second under Sigel up the Shenandoah 
Valley, and the third, Crook's, moving parallel and v^^est of the latter. 

Hunter, who had succeeded Sigel, advanced up the Valley and gained 
a victory near Piedmont on June 6, capturing 1,500 prisoners. A few days 
after he was joined by Crook and Averell, making his force about 20,000. 
These forces began a demonstration against Lynchburg. Lee, seeing the 
danger to his base of supplies in the Shenandoah, hurried Early into the Valley 
to the rear of Hunter. This was about the middle of June, and at the 
time of Grant's attack on Lee at Cold Harbor, of which we will next learn. 
Early's movement forced Hunter to retire westward by way of the Kanawha, 
contrary to Grant's plan of having him work his way eastward towards the 
Army of the Potomac. Hunter's men suffered terribly in their march 
through the mountains, being without food; finally by July 1st, his command 
reached the upper Potomac. Grant, anticipating Hunter's move eastward, 
had sent Sheridan to co-operate with him, but Early's position in the Valley 
forced Sheridan to retire to White House. Thus, through the skilful 
strategy of Lee, Grant's plans for a demonstration up the Valley went awry. 

We must now return to the fierce fighting between Grant and Lee which 
had been going on in the meantime. 

After the fighting at Spottsylvania the armies lay quiet until May 19, 
when Grant next intended a flanking move to the southeast. This had been 
delayed on account of the heavy rains and soggy, impassable roads. 

The Army of the Potomac was just about to start on the 19th when 
Ewell made a spirited attack on Grant's extreme right, which was repulsed 
with heavy loss to the Grays. Finally, on May 21, both armies started south. 
Grant's on his flanking movement, Lee going by shorter interior roads and 
getting to his entrenchments on the southern side of the North Anna River 
ready to receive Grant's next attack. The site of these North Anna 
operations was just to the west of where the Richmond and Fredricksburg 
railroad crosses the North Anna, and about twenty miles in a direct line 
southeast of Spottsylvania Courthouse. On the 23rd, Warren's Corps, under 
the personal direction of General Grant, crossed to the south side of the 
North Anna at Jericho, some four or five miles west of the railroad, and 
drove in some of Hill's outer lines. Lee then attacked Warren in force, 
intending to drive him back into the river. In these bloody assaults Lee's 
troops were not only unsuccessful, but Warren captured 1,000 prisoners. 
Hancock's Corps crossed the next day about three miles east of where Warren 
did, while Wright's 6th Corps crossed where Warren did and then completed 
the line with Warren and Hancock. Burnside was at the centre north of 
the river. These crossings had hardly been completed by Grant when he 
was surprised to find that Lee's formidable entrenchment occupied a wedge- 
shape form with the point resting on the river and the legs completely 
separating Grant's wings. The eastern leg of the wedge rested upon an 
impassable swamp, while the western one ended at Little River. 

Burnside then endeavored to cross the North Anna at a middle point, 
but signally failed, after meeting with a heavy loss in killed and wounded. 
Warren's Corps also attempted to advance to the east, but nearly met with 
a serious disaster in so doing. Grant, now finding his army, so to say, cut 
in twain, determined to withdraw all his forces to the north side of the 



THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 175 

river, as his two separated wings were powerless against Lee's strong 
position. 

In his Memoirs Grant says: "It was a very delicate move to get the 
right wing from its position south of the North Anna River in the presence 
of the enemy." He accomplished it, however, first by sending Wilson's 
cavalry around to the Little River on the right to make a feint, so as to 
give Lee the impression that it was from that direction an attack was to 
be made; then, during the night, he secretly brought the army back again 
across to the northern side of the river. 

A few miles south of Lee's position the North Anna, then the Little, 
and finally the South Anna fiow into the Pamunky River, whence the flowage 
of these streams is conducted east to the Chesapeake Bay. 

Grant at this time moved his base of supplies to White House at the 
lower portion of the Pamunky, where General McClellan had established 
his base in 1862 when conducting the famous Peninsula Campaign. 

Grant, after succeeding In stealing away across the North Anna and 
getting out of his stale mate position, continued his fianking movements 
towards Hanovertown on the Pamunky, some twenty miles in a direct 
line southeast of Lee's position. Sheridan's cavalry with the 6th 
Corps crossed the Pamunky at Hanovertown on the 28th after 
driving off a small force of Grays under General Barringer. Sheridan 
with his cavalry pushing south had an encounter at Hawes Shop, a few 
miles southwest of Hanovertown. Wilson was now recalled from the right, 
and made the rear guard, his feint movement having been successful. In 
the meantime Lee kept moving parallel with Grant, always confronting him 
and protecting the roads to Richmond. The combatants now occupied 
the same ground near Cold Harbor that they did in 1862. 

"The country we were now in," says Grant, "was a difficult one to move 
our troops over. The streams were numerous, deep, sluggish, and some- 
times spreading out into swamps grown up with impassable growths of 
trees and underbrush and difficult to approach except by roads." By the 
29th, Grant got all his forces across the Pamunky except Burnside's Corps, 
which was left on the northern side to protect the trains. 

Sheridan in reconnoitering to the south towards Mechanicsville had an 
encounter in which his cavalry dismounted and attacked Infantry. At first 
he was beaten; then, being reinforced, he succeeded in driving the Grays 
off. On the 29th Grant made a reconnaissance in force to find Lee's lines, 
and if possible to flank them. An advance of but a few miles had been 
made when suddenly Hancock, who was on the centre of the line, ran up 
against fortified works, and in his attacks succeeded in taking and holding 
some rifle pits. In the meantime, Burnside was brought into line. 

Lee then took the offensive by making a vicious attack upon Warren; 
the Blues gave way, and at one time the Grays came near fianking Grant's 
left. Warren's men, however, recovered from their shock, and turned 
and hurled the enemy back a full mile. On the 30th, Wilson, after some 
slight skirmishing with the Grays' cavalry under General Young, entered 
Hanover Courthouse, about six miles northwest of Grant's line. About 
the same time Sheridan made an attempt to drive back the Grays' right, 
but failed. During these encounters of the 30th, the lines of the combatants 
were so close together that no move could be made by either without detec- 
tion by the other. 



176 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL, WAR 

The works which Grant was now encountering were the fortiflcations 
seven miles northeast of Richmond, the southern end of which was at Cold 
Harbor. At this latter place Sheridan on the 31st, after a bloody encounter, 
succeeded in carrying some works. The Grays being reinforced, counter- 
charged. Just as Sheridan's forces were preparing to give way, Wright's 6th 
Corps came up, and together they held the captured works. 

The 18th Corps, 16,000 strong, under General Smith of Butler's army, 
coming by forced marches from White House, reached Grant on June 1, 
when at 5 p. m. preliminary attacks were made on Lee's works about Cold 
Harbor. These were begun by the 6ih and 18th Corps, which succeeded 
in carrying and holding the outer line of works, but were unable to reach 
the inner one. The fighting was of the fiercest nature, especially on the 
part of the Grays, who made repeated charges in the endeavor to regain 
their lost works. These attacks extended well into the night, but were 
without results. 

Grant occupied all the next day in rearranging his forces, which 
imposed upon the men weary marches in order to bring the different corps 
into their respective positions. On June 3, at daybreak, during a drizzling 
rain. Grant's whole line advanced to the attack of Lee's formidable works. 
Barlow and Gibbons of Hancock's Corps on the Union left were sent in. 
Barlow's men soon planted their flags on the ramparts of the Grays, but 
were able to hold them only a short while, being driven out under a terrific 
fire. Finally they succeeded by entrenching in holding the ground just 
outside. Gibbons' line happened to advance into a swamp which cut it 
into two unequal parts. They charged the work, however, and in their 
unsuccessful assault lost many of their best officers. At the same time 
Wright and Smith, to the right of Hancock, made an unsuccessful assault. 
Warren, next on the right, used only his artillery, while Burnside, com- 
pleting the right line, had only reached a position from which Lee's left 
could be advantageously assailed, when General Meade, seeing the failure 
on the right, called him back. All these operations of both armies from 
May 31 to June 12, covered a territory over seven miles in length for the 
whole distance of which the Nationals were confronted by formidable 
fortifications. The formation was now: Hancock on the left, followed in 
succession by Wright, Smith, Warren, and finally Burnside on the right, with 
Wilson's cavalry flanking Burnside, and Sheridan guarding the lower cross- 
ings of the Chickahominy River and the base of supplies at White House. 

It will thus be observed that both armies were now on the old battle- 
field of 1862, and, as Pollard says: "The singular fortune of war had again 
made the Peninsula a deadly battleground." 

Horace Porter, who was an aide-de-camp of General Grant, relates that 
on the night before the Battle of Cold Harbor he noticed many soldiers of 
one regiment which had been selected to make the initial assault, pinning 
on the backs of their coats slips of paper on which were written the name 
and address of the bearer, so that in case of being slain their bodies would 
be identified and sent home. But as will be seen later, the device failed, for 
the killed and seriously wounded were never regained. 

The next desperate attacks of Grant's men on Lee's fortified line of Cold 
Harbor lasted but half an hour, but in that short space of time they lost 
10,000, representing the number falling at 500 per minute, and still the 
Grays held their works. "Later in the day orders were issued to renew the 



THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 177 

attack, but the whole army correctly appreciating what the inevitable issue 
must be, silently disobeyed." — Draper. 

Lee telegraphed to the War Department: "Our loss to-day has been 
small and our success, under the blessing of God, all wu could expect." 

Grant in his Memoirs, says: "I have always regretted that the last 
assault at Cold Harbor was ever made." 

The vast number of killed and wounded covered the ground between 
the lines. The sharpshooting of the Grays prevented the Blues going to 
the succor of their fallen comrades. Grant then wrote Lee pro- 
posing a cessation of hostilities in order to gather in his bleeding wounded. 
Nothing came of the correspondence, which lo.sted four days, and as Grant 
tells us, "in the interim all but two of the wounded had died." He also 
admits that at Cold Harbor "no advantage was gained to compensate the 
terrible loss." "Ten days," says Draper, "the armies remained watching 
each other, when Grant commenced his flanking move by crossing to the 
southern side of the James River, intending to demonstrate against Peters- 
burg. At the North the people were appalled at the arrival of the steady 
stream of legions of wounded. The Presidential campaign was on, Lincoln 
again nominated by the Republican party. General McClellan by the 
Democrats; the slogan of the latter was, "the war is a failure." Even 
Secretary of State Chase gave utterance to the oft quoted remarks: "So far 
Grant has achieved very little, and that little has cost beyond compensation. 
Sherman has done well and apparently more than Grant." 

Of the casualties incurred from the Wilderness to Cold Harbor, Grant in 
his Memoirs, after dwelling upon the difficulties, which his army had to 
contend with, speaks as follows: "Besides the ordinary losses incident to 
a campaign of six weeks, nearly constant fighting or skirmishing, about 
one-half of the artillery had been sent back to Washington." (In a prior 
chapter he said that the artillery was in the way, on account of the nature 
of the country and the fact that the fighting was mainly conducted by 
musketry and bayonet.) Many men were discharged by reason of the expira- 
tion of their term of service. His losses he then gives from the records of 
the Adjutant-General's office, as follows: 

Killed. Wounded. Missing. Aggregate. 

Wilderness, May 5 to 7 2,261 8,785 2,920 13,966 

Spottsylvania, May 9 to 21 2,271 9,360 1,970 13,601 

North Anna, May 23 to 27 285 1,150 217 1,652 

Cold Harbor, May 31 to June 12... 1,769 6,752 1,537 10,058 



Total 6,586 26,047 6,644 39,277 

The above must be assumed to be right, as it is from the official record; 
still the Century War Book, vol. 14, page 182, gives Grant's losses to June 
12, at 54,929 and Butler's 6,215. At any rate the National loss closely 
approximates Lee's entire force at the beginning of the campaign. 

Different methods were used by the Nationals and Confederates in. 
estimating the numbers engaged in campaigns. 

Grant in his Memoirs says: "The manner of estimating the number in 
the two armies differ materially. In the Confederate Army often only 
bayonets are taken into account, never I believe do they estimate more than 
are handling the guns of the artillery and armed with muskets or 



178 THE CAMPAIGNS OP THE CIVIL WAR 

carbines. Generally the latter are far enough away to be excluded from the 
count in any one field. Officers and details of enlisted men are not included. 
In the Northern armies the estimate is most liberal, taking all with the 
army and drawing pay. Estimates in the same manner as ours, Lee had not 
less than 80,000 men at the start. His reinforcements were about equal 
to ours during the campaign, deducting the discharged men and those sent 
back. He was on the defensive and in a country in which every stream, 
every road, every obstacle to the movements of troops, and every natural 
defense was familiar to him and his army. The citizens were all friendly 
to him and his cause, and could and did furnish him with accurate reports 
of our every move. Rear guards were not necessary for him, and having 
always a railroad at his back, large wagon trains were not required. All 
circumstances considered, we did not have any advantage in numbers." Con- 
tinuing he says: 

"General Lee, who had led the Army of Northern Virginia in all these 
contests, was a very highly estimated man in the Confederate Army and 
States, and filled also a very high place in the estimation of the people and 
press of the Northern States. His praise was sounded throughout the 
entire North after every action he was engaged in; the number of his forces 
was always lowered, and that of the National forces exaggerated. He was 
a large austere man and I judge difficult of approach to his subordinates. 

"To be extolled by the entire press of the South after every engagement 
and by a portion of the press of the North with equal vehemence, was calcu- 
lated to give Lee the entire confidence of his troops, and to make him 
feared by his antagonists. It was not an uncommon thing for my staff 
officers to hear from Eastern officers. 'Well, Grant has never met Bobby 
Lee yet.' They were good and true officers who believed now that the 
Army of Northern Virginia was superior to the Army of the Potomac man 
to man. I do not believe so, except as advantage spoken of above made 
them so. Before the end I believe the difference was the other way. The 
Army of Northern Virginia became despondent and saw the end. It did not 
please them. The National Army saw the same thing and were encouraged 
by it." 

On the other hand the Southern historian, Pollard, says: "Six weeks 
had elapsed since the campaign begun, and its record of carnage in this 
brief time was unsurpassed, while on the other hand, never in such a space 
of time had such a sum of glory been achieved as that which illuminated 
the arms of Lee. When he stood in array against Grant on the Rapidan 
his force was not more than 50,000 men. It was this force which had 
compelled Grant after the fighting at the Wilderness and around Spottsyl- 
vania Courthouse to wait six days for fresh troops from Washington before 
he could move, and had baffled his favorite plan of reaching Richmond. 
Lee never received a single item of reinforcements until May 23. At 
Hanover Junction he was joined by Pickett's division of Longstreet's Corps, 
one small brigade of Early's Division of Ewall's Corps, which 
had been in North Carolina with Hoke, and two small brigades and a 
battalion of artillery under Breckinridge, the force under the latter which 
Grant had estimated at 15,000 did not exceed 2,000 muskets. When 
afterwards Lee fell back to the fortified lines immediately about Richmond 
he was joined then by Hoke's division from Petersburg, but at the same 
time Breckinridge's force had to be sent back into the Shenandoah Valley, 



THE CAMPAIGNS OP THE CIVIL WAR 179 



and Ewell's Corps with two battalions of artillery had to be detached under 
Early's command to meet the demonstrations of Hunter, who succeeded 
Sigel, against Lynchburg. These counterbalanced all re-enforcements The 
foregoing statements show, indeed, that the disparity of forces between 
the two armies in the beginning of the campaign was never lessened after 
they reached the vicinity of Richmond, but on the contrary was largely 
increased." 

Neither of these writers mention, however, one well authenticated fact, 
that the National army was well fed, thoroughly equipped, had liberal 
medical attendance and supplies, and was regularly paid, while the Con- 
federate soldiers were not only poorly equipped, but suffered for want of 
clothes and were paid with paper money so badly depreciated that it had a 
very low purchasing power. However, aside from all technical arguments, 
the glorifying fact remains that both Blue and Gray put up fighting that 
has never been equalled in modern warfare, and there all the glory lies. 

After the failure at Cold Harbor, there were two courses which Grant 
might pursue. First to move southwestward and invade Richmond from 
the north, or second — to continue his left flank movement to the southeast, 
cross the James River and attack Petersburg, the "back door of Richmond," 
which lay twenty miles as the crow flies directly south of the Confederate 
capital. In choosing the latter he saw clearly that that campaign involved 
a tedious siege of Lee's army within the impregnable works about Petersburg 
which had been constructed by very skilful engineers during virtually the 
entire war. Nevertheless, with his vast army to the south of Petersburg, 
Grant could still continue his flanking movement by gradually extending 
his left westward and ultimately cut Lee's railroad communication with the 
rich magazines of supplies at the south and southwest, and in the end Lee, 
being thus isolated, would necessarily be compelled either to evacuate his 
forts or surrender. As will be learned. Grant with his overwhelming 
numbers and vast resources succeeded finally in achieving these aims, 
although the obstinate tenacity of the Gray veterans under masterful 
generalship of Lee deferred the inevitable result until the following spring. 

On the morning of June 15, Grant's entire army reached the northern 
banks of the James River opposite City Point, having, in order to screen 
the movement from Lee, marched over fifty miles in two days, while at 
the same time his cavalry were making demonstrations to the north of Lee's 
position and erecting earthworks as if feigning to stay. 

The crossing of an army of 130,000 men, guns, wagon teams and vast 
droves of cattle was an extraordinary engineering achievement. A pontoon 
bridge nearly three-quarters of a mile long, and wide enough for twelve men 
to march abreast, was thrown across the James River. Every available 
vessel was also pressed into use as a ferry. At the end of three days, that Is 
to say, on June 18, the last corps got across to the south side of the James. 

Draper thus described the formidable defenses erected about Richmond 
and Petersburg against which Grant's army had now to contend: "There 
were two lines of defenses covering Richmond, an e.xterior and an interior. 
The first encircled it on the north and east, at a distance of four to ten 
miles from the city. It terminated on the south at Chapin's Bluff (near 
where Lee crossed the James); over the river at this point was Fort Darling. 
This line ran westward across the railroad which connected Richmond and 
Petersburg. The second line environed the city from the northwest to the 



180 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL, WAR 

southeast at a distance of two miles, both extremities resting on the river." 

The works about Petersburg encircled ^t on the east and south until 
they reached the Boyton Road, then followed it to where Hatches Run 
crosses this point about twelve miles southwest of Petersburg in a direct 
line. The works then continued along the southern side of that stream in 
a northwesterly direction towards the Appomattox River. The above is 
a description of the works existing' when Grant began his Petersburg 
Campaign, but, as the Union gradually from time to tiine extended its left 
westward, these were simultaneously extended, keeping pace with encircling 
movements of Grant's works. Ultimately the length of Grant's line was 
thirty miles. 

In spite of all Grant's precautions, Lee detected his plan, and he, too, 
crossed the James with his army on pontoons at Drury's Bluff, about midway 
between Richmond and Bermuda Hundred, where Butler was stationed, 
and by the time Grant's army reached City Point his advance columns were 
in the defenses about Petersburg. 

While preparing to cross the James, Grant directed Butler to capture 
Petersburg, the defensive works of which were then but feebly armed by old 
men and boys. In compliance Butler sent on June 10, Gillmore's infantry 
with Kautz's cavalry on the mission. Meeting a stubborn resistance by 
what they took to be a vastly superior force, but which afterwards was 
found out to be but a few hundred, they retired, and thus the chance was 
lost of entering Petersburg as Grant had planned by a dash before Lee 
could man his works. 

Butler, again on the 14th, in accordance with Grant's order to .make 
another attack on the city, dispatched General Smith, who had been sent 
to Bermuda Hundred with all the troops he could spare, including a number 
of colored regiments. These forces succeeded in capturing by assault five 
redans with their guns east of Petersburg, penetrating two miles and cap- 
turing a few hundred prisoners. These outer defenses consisted of thirteen 
redans or field work with rifle pits, three miles long; which, as Grant says in 
his Memoirs, "had they been properly manned could have held out against 
any attacking force." 

Hancock with the 2nd Corps was now hurried across the James to the 
support of Smith. Confusion in orders delayed him several hours, during 
which time Lee's advancing columns reached the works in front of Smith. 
Hancock after some hard fighting captured another redan, when the break- 
ing out of the old wound in his left leg compelled him to relinquish the 
command to Meade. Desperate charging and fighting was now continued, 
which resulted in the Blues gaining three more redans in spite of the heroic 
resistance of the Grays under the immediate command of Beauregard, who 
in the two days following, after bloody combat, succeeded in recapturing 
some of the lost redans in spite of the re-enforcement sent to Meade. 

Soon after these encounters Lee's main forces were aligned along the 
whole inner defensive works, and thus the attempt of Grant to capture 
Petersburg by a dash before Lee could bring up his army was lost. The 
attempts had involved four days' bloody fighting in which Grant lost 10,000 
men, the price paid for a few outer works. This extraordinary sacrifice 
of life for so small a gain determined Grant on a method of slow approaches 
against Lee's invulnerable works. As to losses up to this time. Draper says: 
"Grant had 64,000; Lee, 38,000." 



THE CAMPAIGNS OP THE CIVIL WAR 181 

The account of the siege of Petersburg which Grant now inaugurated 
and which lasted until April of the next year, 18 65, will follow. 

Petersburg, the "l)aclv door of Richmond," is situated on the southern 
side of the Appomattox River, about twenty miles directly south of Rich- 
mond. The Appomattox, after flowing from its source in the west for many 
miles nearly parallel to the James River, takes at Petersburg an abrupt 
bend northward and empties into the latter near City Point. Petersburg 
was an important junction of several railroads and turnpikes by which 
supplies for Lee's army were brought from the fertile southern regions. It 
was Grant's desire to get control of these highways and, by cutting off 
supplies from Richmond and Petersburg, ultimately compel Lee to evacuate 
his position. 

Of these railroads, the Weldon ran almost due south from Petersburg, 
a second one, the South Side, ran westward and at about fifty miles north- 
west of Petersburg crossed the third, the Danville, which was the main 
line to the Gulf States. 

Lee's vast defensive works extended from White Oak Swamp northeast 
of Richmond to Hatcher's Run, about eight miles west of Petersburg as 
the crow flies. Eight miles of these works were to the north of the James 
River in front of Richmond. Then came a stretch of five miles in front 
of Bermuda Hundred, where Butler's army lay; the rest of the line swinging 
around in front of Petersburg and running thence to Hatcher's Run, in all 
some thirty miles in length. These works consisted of inner and outer 
lines of entrenchments and forts. 

After the four days of bloody assaults made by Meade in the middle of 
June, Grant proceeded to form a cordon of works on a range of hills 
encircling Petersburg, parallel with and around Lee's defenses, which in 
most cases were but a few hundred yards from the enemy's works. The 
picket entrenchments of both armies, which in all cases were advanced down 
into the valleys, were about fifty yards apart with heavy thick abatis in 
front. 

The rear of the National line was a forest of just the right-sized trees 
needed for building forts. Along the rear of Grant's line was constructed 
a railroad from City Point, which brought up the supplies. About July 1 
Grant's formation of line was as follows: The Army of the James under 
Butler held Bermuda Hundred and all the region possessed north of the 
James. The 9th Corps under Burnside was at Petersburg; next on the 
left was the 5th Corps, under Warren; then the 2nd Corps under Burney; 
(Hancock being disabled); next the 6th Corps under Wright, which was 
broken to the left and south. As we will read, on July 8, Grant Was obliged 
to send the 6th Corps by water to join with the 19th Corps, most of which 
were disembarking at Washington after the trip from Louisiana and proceed 
with it to Washington to protect the Capital against Early, who, with 15,000 
men was rapidly moving northward through the Shenandoah Valley with 
only two brigades, Wallace's and Rickett's at Monocacy to check him. 

In June, one of Burnside's officers suggested the boring of a mine under 
a six-gun battery at an angle in the Confederate's works; through the breach 
made by the explosion a charging party was to rush in. Grant very re- 
luctantly gave his consent to the project. The mine was completed July 25 
and fired on the 30th, at 5 a. m. The main advancing tunnel through the 
hill occupied by Burnside's men was 500 feet long. From this to the right 



182 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL, WAR 



and left ran at right angles, boxes about 40 feet long running parallel with 
and directly under the Confederates' fort. In these latter were placed 
12,000 pounds of powder. 

News of the construction of the mine reached the 18,000 population 
of Petersburg and caused -dire apprehension. Pollard, the Southern his- 
torian, page 537, thus describes what occurred within the Confederate lines 
when the mine was exploded: "The mine was exploded between four and 
five o'clock in the morning of July 30. An enormous mass of dull, red 
earth was thrown two hundred feet in the air; human forms, guns-carriages, 
and small arms were mingled in what appeared to be a bank of clouds 
blazing with lightning; a great shock smote the ear, and the ground trembled 
as if by an appalling convulsion of nature. Instantly, before the rumble 
of the explosion had died away, every piece of siege artillery on the enemy's 
line, and all the field artillery that could be brought into position opened 
as with the grand chorus of death. With such an infernal display to 
strike terror into the Confederates and to demoralize men suddenly awakened 
from sleep, the 9th Corps, 15,000 strong, marched out to attack and complete 
what was thought to be an easy and certain victory. The assaulting column, 
on reaching the scene of explosion, found that there had been opened here 
a huge crater one hundred and fifty feet long, sixty feet wide, and from 
twenty-five to thirty deep. It did not advance beyond it; instead of rushing 
forward and crowning the crest, the assailants made the most shameful exhi- 
bition of timidity; they huddled into the crater, they sought shelter there, 
and no commands or persuasion could move them further. A division of 
negro troops was thrown into the crater, this maw of death; and for two 
hours the mingled mass of white and black troops, utterly demoralized, unable 
to pluck up courage to make a determined charge upon the crest, swayed 
to and fro in the hollow of the exploded earthworks, while the Confederates 
were rapidly bringing up their artillery on right and left of the crater to 
destroy the enemy before he could extricate himself from the disgraceful 
coil. Once a feeble charge in which the black troops were put in advance 
was made towards the crest. It was encountered by Mahone's brigade. His 
men were ordered not to Are until they could see the whites of the negroes' 
eyes. At the first volley delivered at this distance the blacks broke; they 
were panic-stricken and past control; they rushed through the troops in the 
crater back to the original lines, while into this slaughter pen the Con- 
federates now poured an incessant storm of bombs and shells. Retreat 
across the open space in rear of it was to run the gauntlet of death. The 
ground all around was dotted with the fallen; while the sides and bottom 
of the crater were literally lined with dead, the bodies lying in every con- 
ceivable position. Some had evidently been killed with the butts of muskets, 
as their crushed skulls and badly smashed faces too plainly indicated; while 
the greater portion were shot, great pools of blood having flowed from 
their wounds and stained the ground. In a few short hours of the morning 
the enemy had lost between four and five thousand men, and had accom- 
plished nothing." 

Grant says of the mine in his Memoirs: "The officer selected for leading 
the charge, 'Lidlie,' besides being otherwise inefficient, proved also to possess 
a disqualification less common among soldiers. He ordered his men to 
charge, but remained himself ensconced in safety in the rear." Eggleston, 
the Southern historian, says: "If there had been in command of the troops 



THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL. WAR 183 

set apart for assault, such a man as Sheridan, for example, or Hooker or 
Hancock, the chances were an even one or better that the force hurled 
suddenly upon Lee's broken lines could have made its way into Petersburg 
by impetuous advance." Immediately after the mine affair, General Burnside 
asked for leave of absence, which was granted, whereupon General Parke 
took his place. 

Eggleston says: "During the whole siege incessant firing was kept up by 
either side where port-holes were made by placing sand bags on top of the 
parapets in such a fashion as to leave holes through which the men might 
fire their guns. Even these port-holes were unavailable for use, if by chance 
the enemy looking towards them through a port-hole on the other side could 
see the sky beyond. The moment a man undertook to shoot through a 
port-hole, his head obscuring the light revealed his presence there to some 
sharp-shooter on the other side who was standing ready with gun aimed 
and 'bead' drawn, waiting to fire into the hole the instant the sky beyond 
should be obscured by human presence." 

Grant's aim now was to make every effort to extend his line westward 
so as to compel Lee to attenuate his force in keeping up with the Federal 
advance. Besides the constant musketry and artillery duelling which took place 
daily between the combatants along the whole line, there occurred several 
encounters which are chronicled as follows: In passing, one authority gives 
for the early days of July, 1864, the estimated forces as follows: About 
Petersburg and Richmond, Grant 85,295, after sending the 6th Corps and 
Sheridan's cavalry to head off Early's attack on Washington, of which we 
will read. Lee had 54,751 aside from these forces, with Early in the 
Shenandoah Valley. During July and August, while Sheridan and Early 
were struggling in the Valley, Grant spent much of his time in strengthening 
his entrenchment from the Appomattox east to Petersburg, and constructing 
the railroad along the rear of his force from City Point to a connection 
with the Weldon Railroad by which his army was supplied. 

On August 12, Hancock's Corps was secretly sent to make an attack on 
Deep Bottom, on the north side of the James, a short distance east of Rich- 
mond. The assault resulted in the capture by Hancock of six guns and a 
few hundred prisoners. The object of this movement was to have Lee 
divert forces from his main works about Petersburg so an attack could be 
made on the Weldon Railroad. Six days after Hancock's attack on Deep 
Bottom, Warren's 5th Corps struck the Weldon Railroad four miles south of 
Petersburg; this movement south by Warren left a gap in Grant's line, and 
Lee, quick to see the opportunity, on the 19th sent Mahone with his division 
to the attack. In a dash they captured 3,000 prisoners, after hard fighting, 
but were finally overwhelmed by numbers and driven back. On the 20th, 
Warren, in another attempt to destroy the Weldon Railroad, was repulsed; 
however, there had been up to this time twenty-four miles of the railroad 
ruined though to do it had cost Grant over four thousand men, during 
these last few days. Hancock was then recalled to help Warren at his 
railroad operations. With Hancock were Miles' and Gibbons' divisions. 
Lee hurried A. P. Hill against these; they clashed at Ream's Station, where 
tlie Federals were beaten v/ith a loss of 2,700. 

Again, on the 28th, Butler sent a force to the northern side of the 
James which captured Fort Harrison near Chapman's Farm and held it 
despite several heroic efforts on the part of the Grays to regain it. Butler's 



184 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 

forces then attempted to capture the next adjoining worli;s, Fort Gilmer, but 
could not succeed. Next Meade made <a reconnaissance in force, and 
extended the left of line three miles further west, but still found Lee's 
fortifications confronting him. On October 7, Kautz's cavalry, north of the 
James, met with disaster in the loss of nine guns. On October 13, another 
assault by Butler failed. On the 27th, Grant succeeded in pushing his left, 
by cavalry, across Hatcher's Run. This movement caused a gap between 
Warren's 5th Corps and the 2nd Corps. (Hancock being disabled, Hum- 
phreys was in command.) Lee, ob.serving the gap, quickly attacked, but 
gained nothing except to compel Grant to withdraw his cavalry from 
Hatcher's Run. It will thus be seen that, while mainly on the defensive, 
and with a much smaller force than Grant, Lee availed himself of every 
opportunity to take the offensive when it promised success, and these 
tactics he continued up to the final blow. 

During the suinmer and fall, Butler had been digging the Dutch Gap 
Canal across a neck at a bend in the James River. It was a mile long, and 
on December 20, when the dam was blown up, so as to let in the water 
of the James and thus change its course, the river refused to change, and 
so Butler's effort came to naught. 

From this time until the spring of 1865, the operations in front of 
Petersburg and Richmond were confined by Grant to the defense and 
extension of his lines, and the preventing of Lee from detaching forces 
southward. 



THE CAMPAIGNS OP THE CIVIL WAR ISE 



CHAPTER XIX. 

Sheridan's Shenandoah Valley Campaign, 1864. 

Early's Sortie Into Maryland — The Monacacy Campaign — Movements of 
the 19th Corps — Confederate Raid Into Pennsylvania — Sheridan Charged With 
Defense of Washington^ — His Campaign Against Early in the Shenandoah 
Valley — Battle of the Opequon — Fisher's Hill — Early's Trick — Cedar Creek 
— "Sheridan's Ride" — Character of Sheridan — The 90th N. Y. Regiment 
at Cedar Creek — Re-election of Lincoln — Subsequent History of the 19th 
Corps — Sheridan's Expedition from the Valley to Petersburg. 

It will be remembered that early in June, 1864, it became necessary for 
Lee to detach from his army at Petersburg a considerable force under Gen- 
eral Early to meet the demonstrations of Hunter in the Shenandoah Valley 
who was threatening his base of supplies at Lynchburg. 

We have also learned of the success of Early and the disastrous retreat 
of Hunter across the mountains into West Virginia which occurred on June 
19. Grant, in his Memoirs, in speaking of Hunter's move, says: "Had 
Hunter moved east by way of Charlottesville instead of Lexington as his 
instructions contemplated, he would have been in a position to cover the 
Shenandoah Valley against the enemy should the force he met seem to 
endanger it. If it did not he would have been within easy distance of the 
James River Canal and the main line of communications between Lynch- 
burg and the forces sent for its defence." 

As it was, Hunter by moving west left the valley open for a raid into 
Maryland and Pennsylvania, which opportunity Early was quick to take 
advantage of. 

Immediately after Hunter's retreat Early turned northward and pushed 
rapidly down the Shenandoah Valley. Not a moment was lost; the Southern 
historian, Pollard, says: "In spite of the excessive heat Early's troops marched 
twenty miles a day. It was another illustration of General Lee's wonderful 
enterprise, and showed this commander to be one of the most daring as 
well as one of the most skilful Generals of the age. We see now that when 
Grant was hoping to suffocate him with numbers at Petersburg he dared 
to detach a considerable force to threaten the capital of Washington, retain- 
ing at Petersburg only A. P. Hill, two divisions of Ewell's Corps and one 
of Longstreet's. This move would impress the Northern public with an 
overestimate of his strength and resources and thereby gain strong moral 
effect." Besides, Lee counted by Early's raid to force Grant to detach 
large forces from Petersburg. 

Pressing on. Early crossed the Potomac River, and, advancing into 
Maryland on July 2, levied against Hagerstown $20,000, and on July 9th 
levied against Frederick $200,000. On that day he met a brigade under 
General Lew Wallace near the Monacacy Bridge, and badly defeated it. This 
defeat, however, turned out to be a piece of good fortune for the Blues, as 
it delayed the invaders. Early then moved unmolested on to Washington, 
his advance cavalry on July 10 reaching Rockville in sight of the capital, 



1S6 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 

the firing- along' the skirmish line being heard by the President at the 
White House. Early's 500 miles of wear* march in tropical weather, how- 
ever, had told on his command, thinning its ranks and leaving him with 
but 8,000 troops, 40 guns and 2,000 cavalry. 

On July 12 he made a reconnaissance in frgnt of Fort Stevens just 
north of Washington City, which was witnessed by President Lincoln from 
the fort ramparts. Reflecting that he was in the heart of the enemy's 
country and not knowing what forces defended the capital, he abandoned 
his design of attack and began that same night a retreat towards the 
Shenandoah Valley. Rhodes in his history says: "If Early had profited 
by the moment of the consternation he could have gone into W^ashington, 
seized the money in the Treasury, the large stores of clothing, arms and 
ammuniti(_)n, destroyed a large amount of government property, and, while 
he might not have been able to hold the place, he could have escaped with- 
out harm from the veterans who were on the way to the rescue. It was the 
opportune arrival of the 6th and 19th Corps sent by Grant that saved the 
disaster of the capture of the capital," for, as Lincoln at that time said, 
"there was not another available man to assist the 2,000 defenders who 
themselves were mostly invalids." 

While the failure of Early's main object, the destruction of Washing- 
ton, was a sore disappointment to the Davis Administration, still Early 
brought back with him 5,000 horses and 2,500 beef cattle, and was soon 
standing at bay up the Valley threatening to repeat the raid. 

The indescribable consternation among the people of the North as 
Early's forces appeared unopposed at the very gates of the National capital, 
compelled Grant to send from Petersburg for its protection the 6th Corps 
under Wright, and two divisions of the 19th Corps which had just arrived 
from New Orleans. At this time there were around Washington four mili- 
tary departments working independently and at cross purposes, the field 
forces in the vicinity being directed by Halleck and Secretary of War Stanton 
instead of their own commanders. 

The writer's Corps (19th) took active part in these campaigns of July, 
1864, and also the succeeding campaigns under General Sheridan, 
which followed during the rest of the summer and the following autumn, 
and realizing that a number of his old comrades in battle would be pleased 
to have those stirring times recounted, he craves the indulgence of the 
general reader for going somewhat minutely in the details of these operations. 
It was at the crisis of Early in the Valley that Grant ordered General 
Canby, then in command of the Army of the Gulf, to put off his designs on 
Mobile, Alabama, and send the 19th Corps under command of General Emory 
to Hampton Roads, Virginia, with all speed. In compliance therewith, two 
divisions embarked from Algiers, opposite New Orleans, on July 3. General 
Emory occupied headquarters on the steamer Mississippi with the writer's 
regiment, the 90th New York, and the 116th New York and 30th Massa- 
chusetts. The steamer getting aground on the 4th at the Southwest pass, 
he transferred his staff to the steamer Creole. The steamer Crescent had 
aboard the 153rd and four companies of the 114th New York regiments. 
The 3rd brigade of 1st Division sailed on the 10th, followed by Grover's 2nd 
Division on the 20th. 



THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 1S7 

Arriving at Hampton Roads, the ships with the 19th Corps were ordered 
to proceed to Washington, which they reached on the 13th. The 6th Corps 
sent by Grant was already chasing Early, while the handful of troops of 
the 19th Corps stood at supporting distance. 

On the 12th Wright caught up to Early's rear guard and attacked with 
a brigade and forced them back to Rockville. 

As the different detachments of the 19th Corps landed they were 
marched during the night by long and tedious routes to Tennally Town, 
where in the morning they found themselves without supplies or orders. 

The 90th New York Veteran Volunteers, the writer's regiment, dis- 
embarked on the afternoon of the 13th, the next day following Early's 
attack on Fort Stevens. While stretched along one of the streets of Wash- 
ington cooking coffee for their supper, President Lincoln appeared and 
made a handsome complimentary speech upon the fine record of the Corps 
in Louisiana, at Port Hudson, Red River and other places. 

The writer with nearly all the boys enjoyed the distinguished and highly 
appreciated honor of shaking the hand of "Old Abe." Just as he was step- 
ping into his carriage the President stooped down and patted on the head 
the regimental dog "Kittler," at which the boys burst out in joyous laughter 
and hearty cheering. "You have just come in time to catch the rascal 
Early," he said as the carriage drove off. 

Wright was put in command of the 6th and 19th Corps. The 19th, 
which had some 4,000 men in ten regiments, lay in bivouac about Tennally 
Town. 

General Emory joined the forces at Poolesville, with two of Wright's 
1st Division, on the 15th. Early in the meantime had slipped away, cross- 
ing the Potomac at White's Ford. Hunter's troops were now beginning to 
arrive from West Virginia, after their wide excursion over the Alleghenies, 
and were threatening Early on the flank, while at the same time exposing 
their own. This obliged Wright to hurry to Hunter's support. On the 16th 
the 6th and 19th Corps waded the Potomac at White's Ford and camped 
about three miles beyond Leesburg, some fifteen miles northeast of Snicker 
Gap in the Blue Ridge Mountains, and directly east of Winchester in the 
Valley. It was through that gap that Early had hurried the day before. 

On the 18th Wright and Hunter passed through Snicker's Gap, and 
when the advance columns reached the northern bank of the Shenandoah 
River they were attacked by Early's troops and driven back with great 
loss. Another attempt to get south of Early by way of the next gap ten 
miles south called Ashly, proved abortive. Hunter, having gathered all 
his command at Harper's Ferry, sent a brigade under General Rutherford 
B. Hayes (afterwards President of the United States) up the Valley while 
Averell, with infantry and cavalry, was to sweep south from Martinsville 
on Winchester. Thus menaced on both flanks and rear. Early on the 19th 
retreated to Stratsburg some thirty miles south. 

The next morning the 6th and 19th Corps crossed the Shenandoah, 
intending to move on Winchester, but when it was learned where Early had 
ceased his retreat, they recrossed the river during the night and marched 
back to Leesburg and camped the following morning at Goose Creek. All 
the boys of the 90th still alive will recall the wading at Ford's Ford; the 
fight on the north bank of the river during the terrific rainstorm of the 
afternoon; the supply of fresh mutton captured; the recrossing of the river. 



188 THE CAMPAIGNS O F THE CIVIL. WAR 

and the dreary march all night in wet clothes to Goose Creek, and again 
the forced march of the 22nd to Washington; the crossing of Chain Bridge 
and camping on the heights near Battery Vermont, all being pretty well 
used up. 

As Early's withdrawal from Maryland had quieted all apprehensions for 
the safety of Washington, Grant sent the rest of the 19th Corps to join 
Emory, these latter troops as they arrived at Hampton Roads, were 
sent to reinforce Butler at Bermuda Hundred, taking position on the right 
of the line before Petersburg. Within ten days, parts of four brigades, 
McMillan's and Curry's of the first division, and Mulineaux's of Grover's 
division, were engaged under Hancock in the affair at Deep Bottom on the 
north bank of the James River, which occurred on July 25. 

Going back to the Shenandoah Valley, we find that General Averell, 
who was chasing after Early, came on the 20th in contact with a force of 
Grays under Ramseur and routed them. Early learning that Wright had 
fallen back to Washington then returned north to attack Hunter's small 
isolated force, and succeeded in pushing some Blues under Crook at the 
old battleground of Kernstown, where in 1863 Jackson and Shields had 
clashed. Crook lost 1,000 and was driven back into Maryland. Early 
then entered with zeal on the task of breaking up the Baltimore and Ohio 
Railroad, and hastening McCausland's, Bradley's and Johnson's brigades of 
cavalry north on a raid. In retaliation for the depredations which, it was 
claimed, Hunter had committed while moving up the Valley in June, Mc- 
Causland, on July 30, demanded from the people of Chambersburg, Penn., 
$100,000 in gold or $500,000 in greenbacks, and not getting it on the instant 
committed the overt act of war in laying the greater part of the town 
in ashes. These raiders were set upon by Averell, and, after a hard chase, 
they were dispersed at Moorefield on the south bank of the Potomac. 

In the meantime, on the 26th, the 6th and 19th Corps had been hurried 
out of Washington to meet this second invasion of Early, byt in point of 
fact, Early was quietly reposing at Bunker Hill, a few miles .south of 
Harper's Ferry, where he easily commanded the approaches and debouches 
of the valley, and the fords of the Potomac from Harper's Ferry to Williams- 
port and the whole line of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. 

When the 19th Corps left Tennally Town on July 26 it numbered some 
5,000 men. The line of march was along the Frederick road, and, though 
the heat was intense, the boys made nineteen /niles a day. The members 
of the 90th regiment will never forget that scorching hot, dusty, exhausting 
inarch. They started again at 3 a. m. the next morning, continuing on their 
weary tramp five days; crossing the Potomac at Harper's Ferry, they camped 
fagged out on the 30th at Halltown, the very day that McCausland burned 
and sacked Chambersburg. Still no rest was permitted, for Halleck, fearing 
Early was pushing north again, ordered the 6th and 19th Corps first to 
Frederick, then further to Emmittsburg, to hold the passes in the South 
Mountains through which Lee in 1862 had fought McClellan just before the 
battle of Antietam. The march of July 3i, in which thirteen miles were 
covered in the retrogressive and mysterious movements, will always be 
remembered by the writer. Of this Irwin says: "The men and animals 
suffered terribly from the heat and dust, added to the accumulated fatigue 
they had already undergone from a succession of long days and short nights." 
The boys of the 19th Corps suffered especially from blistered feet, for they 



THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL. WAR 189 

were tramping through a hard stony country to which they were unused, 
their former long marches through Louisiana having been over clayey soil, 
where never a stone even as big as a pebble was ever found. 

Halleck, learning that Early was not advancing north, now allowed the 
army to rest, which ended the Monacacy Campaign. 

The time of Early's appearance at the gates of the capital was at the 
beginning of the Presidential canvass. The terrible losses of Grant's "at- 
trition" campaign had greatly stirred the public of the North; McClellan 
was spoken of as the proper commander instead of Grant, but Lincoln, with 
his strong faith in the latter, would not listen to any such ideas. 

At this momentous period Rhodes says that Thomas A. Scott of the 
Pennsylvania Railroad telegraphed to Hallock "the apathy of the public 
mind is fearful. It might be doubted whether men in sufficient numbers 
would be forthcoming to complete the conquering of the South." Rhodes 
further states: "The financial condition, too, was deplorable, and may 
be measured by the fluctuation of the price of gold; January it sold at 152; 
April, 175; June, 197, and in July, when Early reached Washington, it was 
282, making a paper dollar (greenback) worth only 40 cents." Fortunately, 
the Union cause had one friendly financial adherent in the people of Germany, 
who alone of all the foreign financiers bought the government bonds, which 
ultimately reaped them vast profits. 

Greeley of the New York Tribune became interested with many others 
in endeavors for peace. He met some Southern people at Niagara, N. Y., to 
consider the subject, but since these gentlemen had no credentials from the 
Confederacy, nothing came of the meeting. Again, with Lincoln's knowledge 
and consent, as Rhodes tells us, Colonel Jaques and J. A. Gillmore had an 
interview on the subject with President Davis. As these gentlemen took 
their departure Mr. Davis said, "Say to Mr. Lincoln for me, that I shall be 
pleased to receive proposals for peace. We are not fighting for slavery; we 
are fighting for independence, and that or extermination we will have." 

In August the Democrats, or peace party, nominated General George B. 
McClellan as their candidate for the Presidency, and the Republicans renomi- 
nated Lincoln with the slogan, "war to the finish." 

Of this time, Irwin says: "The day Grant left City Point for Wash- 
ington, Early marched north from Bunker Hill, meaning to cover McCaus- 
land's retreat and to destroy Hunter, and so, curiously enough, it happened 
that Early's whole army actually crossed the Potomac into Maryland at 
Martinstaurg and Shepherdstown a few hours before Crook passed over 
the ford at Harper's Ferry into Virginia; and, still more curiously, while 
ten days before the groundless apprehension of another invasion by Early 
had thrown the North into a fever and the government into a fright, here 
was Early actually in Maryland on the battlefield of Antietam without pro- 
ducing so much as a sensation. As soon as Early got the first inkling of 
what was going on behind him he tripped briskly back to Martinsburg, and, 
finding Hunter at Halltown, resumed his old position at Bunker Hill." 

On August 1 Grant had sent the following dispatch to Halleck: "Un- 
less General Hunter is not in the field in person I want General Sheridan 
to be put in comrr.and of all the forces with instructions to put himself 
south of the enemy and follow him to the death. If Hunter is in the field, 
give Sheridan the 6th Corps and cavalry which will reach Washington (from 
Petersburg) to-night." 



190 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 

Secretary of War Stanton was opposed to Sheridan as comnnander, 
thinking him too young. In this connection McElroy, in his excellent his- 
tory published in the National Tribune during 1910, says: "President Lincoln 
with his usual acumen had seen where the fault lay between his two sub- 
ordinates, Halleck and Stanton. In some way Grant's order came to Lin- 
coln's notice, and he sent the following dispatch to Grant, which em- 
bodied his remarkably clear perception of the military situation: 

" 'Office U. S. Military Telegraph War Department,, 

" 'Washington, D. C, August 3, 1864, by cypher 6 p. m. 
"'Lieutenant-General Grant, City Point, Va. : 

" 'I have seen your dispatch in which you say I want Sheridan put in 
command of all the troops in the field, etc., but please look over the dis- 
patches you may have received from here, and discover, if you can, that 
there is any idea in the head of any one here of putting an army south of 
the enemy or following to the death. I repeat to you it neither will be 
done nor attempted unless you watch it every day and hour and force it. 

" 'A. LINCOLN.' " 

This dispatch brought Grant at once in person to Washington, and he 
proceeded immediately to Monocacy, where he met Hunter with troops in 
camp. Hunter explained his inactivity by saying that he did not know 
what to do, his orders from Washington having been so contradictory and 
confusing. When Grant stated to him his plan of placing the department 
under his command, leaving Sheridan for the advance. Hunter declined 
because, he said, he felt that those at Washington had no faith in him. This 
sacrifice on the part of Hunter greatlj^ surprised Grant, who always enter- 
tained a high opinion of Hunter. General Sheridan was then made com- 
mander. McElroy says: "He, Sheridan, was undersized, thin, almost to 
meagreness, with a strong Celtic face." Grant gathered 30,000 troops, of 
which 8,000 were cavalry. Early was supposed to have about the same 
force. At the same time Grant ordered the assault on the 13th by Warren 
on the Weldon railroad south of Petersburg, in order to engage Lee and com- 
pel him to recall Anderson's re-inforcements then coming to Early. 

Considerable maneuvering was now indulged in by Sheridan and Early 
in the neighborhood of Winchester, both sparring for positions, and on the 
watch for a mistake. 

During these movements the people at the North were thrown into a 
turmoil of excitement by Early sending foraging parties north of the 
Potomac, which they interpreted as another invasion. 

Grant, getting uneasy at what he considered Sheridan's tardiness, called, 
on August 16, upon the latter, carrying with him full written instructions 
for the campaign; but, as he says in his Memoirs: "When I had gone over 
Sheridan's ideas, I returned pleased to Petersburg and never revealed the 
plans I had outlined for him." General Jubal A. Early had about 20,000 
troops, consisting of four divisions under Generals Rhodes, Ramseur, Gor- 
don and Breckinridge, together with four cavalry brigades under Lomax. 
Again the Blue and Gray were to meet in bloody battles in the beautiful 
Shenandoah, grimly nicknamed by the Union soldiers, "The Valley of Humili- 
ation," so often, as Irwin says: "Had those fair and fertile fields witnessed 
the rout of the National forces; so often had the armies of the Union marched 
proudly up the white and dusty shell Turnpike running its entire length, only 



THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR i;tl 

to come fl.\ins' back in disorder ;ind disgrace." 

"iUil now at Ihe end of the fourth year of hostilities the clash of 
iirmies and marching of troops, the reverberating of cannons, the burning 
of buildings, the destruction of crops and confiscation of horses and cattle 
were to cease." The farmers of that picturesque valley were no longer to 
lie despoiled by friend and foe. But before this peaceful condition could be 
reached it required several months, during which three pitched battles had 
to be fought, with constant daily skirmishing between infantry and cavalry, 
ore Sheridan succeeded in driving Early from the Valley. 

Lee, in order to strengthen Early that he might hold his ground and 
cover the gathering in of the crops, sent Anderson's and Kershaw's divisions 
of infantry, Fitzhugh Lee's division of cavalry and Cutshow's battalion of 
artillery into the valley. 

General Early, on August 12, had retired to the strongly fortified 
heights of Fisher's Hill, directly west of Chester Gap in the Blue Ridge 
Mountains, at the north end of a short range called Three Top Mountains. 

After driving off some advanced skirmishers of the 6th Corps on the 
13th, the two armies see-sawed up and down the wide plains between Fisher's 
Hill and Harper's Ferry. During these excursions Early made many efforts 
to destroy the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and Canal, and so this alternat- 
ing play, involving daily encounters, might have continued until the war 
was over had not other causes and events intervened. It was about this 
time that the balance of the 19th Corps under General Grover reached 
Sheridan from Petersburg, having marched 69 miles from Washington in 
three days, the last 33 miles being made in thirteen and one-half hours, ac- 
cording- to Irwin. In speaking of his corps at this time he says: "In spite 
of the arduous campaigning, the veterans of the 19th Corps, crowned with 
the victories won in Louisiana, greatly enjoyed the change from the ener- 
vating climate of the Mississippi regions, with its muddy waters and ma- 
larious marshes, to the bracing air, the crystal waters, the rolling wheat 
fields and beautiful blue mountains of the Shenandoah, which acted like a 
tonic, nor were the troops slow in remarking that they never had a com- 
missary or quartermaster so good as Sheridan." Sheridan had now 40,000 
infantry and 15,000 cavalry, while Early's force was reduced by the recall 
of Anderson. The fast hold Grant succeeded in getting on the Weldon 
railroad compelled Lee to recall from Early Anderson's corps. On his way 
to Richmond Anderson ran up again.st Crook, which brought about a sharp 
fight near nightfall, when Anderson, passing through Chester Gap, reached 
Lee in safety." 

On the evening of the 18th, Early's forces were stretched along the 
threat pike road some twenty miles from Winchester north to Martinsburgr, 
a station on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. Sheridan, finding his foe's 
line thus attenuated, determined to strike at Winchester, where he expected 
to meet but a few divisions. His army lay on the eastern side of the valley. 
Between the two armies flowed in a northerly direction almost parallel to 
the Berryville Pike, the Opequon Creek (pronounced O-Peck-an) some five 
miles east of Winchester. 

The place selected by Sheridan to cross the Opequon was a ford on the 
Berryville road, which led directly west into Winchester. 

At 2 o'clock in the morning of the 19th, the 6th Corps under Wright 
with the 19th Corps under Emory closely following, crossed the creek, but, 



192 T HE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 

being obliged to march through a deep narrow defile between two hills a 
short distance west of the creek, made going slow, and, unfortunately for 
Sheridan's plan, it was not until near noon that the troops and cannons were 
able to deploy in the rolling fields, overlooking the "Valley of the Opequon 
to the rear and Winchester to the front," taking six hours to accomplish but 
three miles, which exasperating delay gave Early time to gather in his 
scattered forces around Winchester. "Here and there the high ground," 
says Irwin, "was covered with large oaks, pines and undergrowth, inter- 
\/ sected by many creeks. To the right or north ran parallel to the pike a 
large creek called Red Run, and about a mile south of it another, likewise 
parallel to the pike, Abraham's Creek, both fiowing eastward into the 
Opequon. The 6th Corps formed line across the Berryville road, while the 
19th stretched off to the right to Red Run. Wilson's cavalry moved to 
the left with part of it across to the south of Abraham's Creek. In front of 
Wright's 6th Corps was open country, but Emory's 19th Corps was in a 
dense forest, which hid from them the Grays in their front under Gordon 
and Ramseur. About noon Sheridan's whole line at the sound of the bugle 
advanced rapidly towards Winchester, Wilson on the left forcing back the 
Grays' cavalry under Lomax, Wright driving back Ramseur at the centre, 
while Emory in the woods attacked Gordon at the point of the bayonet, 
driving him in confusion. This brilliant charge of the 19th Corps men was 
led by General Birge. In vain the ardor of the charges would not be 
restrained, until getting through the forests and into the open they were 
brought to a stand by the cannonade from Baxton's batteries. Ramseur 
and Rhodes reforming, charged and swept Birge's reckless charges back, 
and soon the line of the 19th Corps between the pike and Red Run was 
in confusion; the soldiers quickly rallied, however, and, dashing on the foe, 
drove them in turn back in disorder. By one o'clock the 6th and 19th 
Corps occupied the line held by the Grays in the morning, the fierce en- 
counter having lasted but an hour. 

A lull of two hours was used by both sides in organizing their lines. 
Sheridan then brought Crook's cavalry from the left and sent them to the 
right across Red Run, when at 4 p. m. the final attack was made. At the 
same time the 6th and 19th Corps rushed at Rhodes and Ramseur, and in 
a short time Early saw his whole left wing giving away in disorder — thus 
the battle was won for the Blues. In this battle Sheridan had used every 
musket, cannon and sabre. The enthusiasm and cheering of the victors was 
long and continuous. Sheridan had emplanted himself in the hearts of 
every one of his troops, which came in good stead as we will see on another 
occasion. The President promoted Sheridan to a brigadier-general in the 
regular army, with permanent command of the army of the Shenandoah. 
The Blues' loss was 697 killed and 3,983 wounded, in all, including the miss- 
ing 5,018. The 19th Corps suffered the heaviest, especially in Grover's divi- 
sion. Early's loss is said to have been over 4,000, with General Rhodes 
killed and Fitzhugh Lee severely wounded. In his hurried retreat he was 
obliged to leave the killed and wounded in the line of the enemy, besides 
losing five guns and nine battle flags. 

Early retired to the defenses on Fisher's Hill about 25 miles south of 
Winchester at the north end of a short range called Three Top Mountains, 
which runs parallel to and a short distance west of the Massanutten Moun- 
tains, which latter with the Blue Ridge form the lovely Valley of the Luray, 



THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL, WAR 193 

To prevent Sheridan taking him by the flank, Early posted cavalry in the 
Luray, for Torbert's riders were on their way from Front Royal endeavor- 
. ing, if possible, to get to Early's rear. At the same time Crook was sent by 
Sheridan on a like mission round by the right, hidden by hills and woods, 
in hopes of coming upon Early secretly. Early's formation facing Sheridan 
was, Wharton on the right, then Gordon, Pegram and Ramseur. 

On September 21 Sheridan's advanced columns pushed Early's skirmishes 
back into the works of Fisher's Hill. "The sun was just sinking," says Ir- 
win, "when the noise of battle was heard by Sheridan's army in front of the 
Hill, far away on the right; this was Crook, sweeping everything before him, 
as he charged suddenly out of the forests full upon the left flank and rear 
of Lomax and Ramseur, taking the whole Confederate line in complete re- 
verse." Instantly the 6th and 19th Corps took up the movement, and, 
inspired by the presence and impetuous commands of Sheridan, descended 
rapidly the steep and broken sides of the ravine at the bottom of which 
lies Tumble Run; and then, rather scrambling than charging up the rocky 
and almost inaccessible sides of Fisher's Hill, they swarmed over the strong 
intrenchments, line after line, and, planting their colors upon the parapets, 
saw the whole of Early's army in disorderly flight, which did not cease 
until they covered ten miles to the south. 

Torbert in the Luray Valley, being checked by two brigades under Fitz- 
hugh Lee, fell back to his starting point, but, hearing on the 23rd of the vic- 
tory of Crook, he then advanced; it was too late, however, and this part of 
Sheridan's plan went awry. 

All night of the 22nd, Sheridan's whole army chased Early's retreating 
troops; many times Early's rear guard stopping to offer what resistance it 
could. At dawn on the 23rd, near Woodstock, Sheridan sent his weary troops 
into bivouac, where they rested until the afternoon, and then continued the 
pursuit. On the 24th both armies were fronting each other at Mount Jack- 
son, about 30 miles south of the battlefield of Fisher's Hill, when Sheridan 
began preparing again to give battle; but Early continued his movement 
southward in order of battle, followed up by Sheridan's army in like order. 
Early's route deflected east from the Pike towards Brown's Gap in the 
Blue Ridge Mountains, to join the forces under Kershaw which Lee was 
hurrying to his support, and the two joined on the 2 6th. Sheridan con- 
tinued south along the Pike a day's march further to Harrisonburg, of which 
we have so often heard about in the several encounters of the Blue and 
Gray in the Shenandoah Valley. Some of Sheridan's cavalry got unmolested 
as far as Staunton and Waynesboro, thirty miles further up the valley. 

Cavalry under Merritt who had been sent to follow and observe Early's 
movements ran into Kershaw at Brown's Gap and were driven back. A race 
then took place between Torbert and Early for Rockfish Gap, which was 
won by the former, Early being obliged to draw oft. Being now over one 
hundred miles from his base, with his rear pestered more or less by Mosby's 
guerillas, Sheridan, on October 6, turned about, and, stretching his army 
in one long line across the Valley from mountain to mountain, moved slowly 
north. Now commenced that dire devastation of the Valley which Sheridan 
reported as follows "The whole country from the Blue Ridge to North Moun- 
tain has been rendered untenable for a rebel army. I have destroyed over 
2,000 barns filled with wheat and hay and farming implements; over 70 



194 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL, WAR 



mills filled with flour and wheat. I have driven in front of the army over 
4,000 head of stock; have killed and issued «o the troops not less than 3,000 
sheep. A large number of horses also have been obtained." 

Early promptly following Sheridan with his whole army, his cavalry 
under Rosser treading on the heels of those of Torbert. On the 9th Torbert. 
under energetic orders of Sheridan "to whip the Confederate Cavalry or 
get whipped himself," turned upon Rosser, and after a sharp fight, com- 
pletely overwhelmed him and hotly pursued his flying columns more than 
twenty miles up the Valley, "capturing nearly everything on wheels." On 
the 10th Sheridan's army went into camp on the south side of Cedar Creek. 
Grant once more fell back on his first and favorite plan of movement on 
Charlottesville and Gordonsville east of the Blue Ridge. Sheridan was, 
however, averse to his plan. By order of Grant, Wright with the 6th Corps 
started on October 12 to march to Alexandria by way of Ashly, Ga., in the 
Blue Ridge Mountains, everyone thinking that Early had quitted the valley 
for Gordonsville; he had, however, never left the valley, but was slowly 
following Sheridan at a safe distance. 

At this time Sheridan was requested by Secretary of War Stanton to come 
on to Washington for a consultation on the 13th, while he was on his way and 
Wright v/ith his 6th Corps was well advanced towards Alexandria. Early took 
up position at the old battlefield of Fisher's Hill, from which heights and those 
of Hupp's Hill, he could look down on the Union camps on the banks of 
Cedar Creek, and began shelling Crook's command on Sheridan's left, where- 
upon Thoburn, with Custer and Merritt's cavalry, in a sharp fight, attempted 
to take the annoying battery, but without avail. Wright's 6th Corps was 
just wading the Shenandoah River when they received orders to hurry back 
and on the 14th it went into camp to the right and rear of the 19th Corps 
at Cedar Creek. Sheridan then sent cavalry under Merritt in motion to- 
wards Chester Gap, intending to make a diversion on Gordonsville; he, 
himself, accompanied Merritt to Front Royal, meaning to pay his proposed 
visit to Washington, but, on the 16th, before quitting Front Royal, the signal 
corps reported having taken a signal message of the enenny to Early which 
read: "Be ready to move as soon as my forces join you and we will crush 
Sheridan — LONGSTREET." 

This menacing news forced Sheridan to send back the cavalry to Wright, 
who was in command at Cedar Creek; during his absence, he warned that 
commander to be on the lookout. 

Sheridan proceeded by rail to Washington, reaching there on the 17th. 
The captured signal message of Longstreet was inferred by Sheridan and 
Wright as a trick; still they were not sure, and the information greatly con- 
cerned Sheridan. Irwin, on page 407, of the History of the 19th Corps, ex- 
plains the mystery. We quote: "To the courtesy and kindness of General 
Early the author is greatly indebted for the key to the riddle. Under date 
of November 6, 1890, he writes: 'The sig.nal message — was altogether ficti- 
tious. As Sheridan's troops occupied the north bank of Cedar Creek in such 
a strong position as to render it impracticable for me to attack him in front, 
I went to the signal station just in my rear for the purpose of examining 
the position and found the officer in charge of the station reading some 
signals that were being sent by the Federal signal agents. I then asked if 
the other side could read his signals, and he told me that they had dis- 
covered the key to the signals formerly used, taut that a change had been 



THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 195 

made. I then wrote the message purporting to be from Longstreet, and had 
it signalled in full view of the Federt^l signal men whom we saw on the 
hill in front of my position, so that it might be read by them. My object 
was to induce Sheridan to move back his troops from the position they oc- 
cupied, and I am inclined to think that if he had been present with his 
command, he would have done so. However, the movement was not made, 
and I then determined to make the attack which was made on the 19th of 
October. The object of that attack was to prevent any troops from being re- 
turned to Grant's Army.' " 

Early's forces on October 18 were posted on the heights of Fisher's Hill, 
which overlooked the entire encampment of Sheridan's Army then in com- 
mand of Wright. These forces occupied low hills on the north side of Cedar 
Creek; the 8th Corps on the left flanked by the Shenandoah River into 
which ran the Creek at Mclnturff's Ford; next to the right, but somewhat 
to the rear, was the 19th Corps, part of its left camped a little west of the 
Valley pike and facing east, then finally to the rear and right of the 19th lay 
the 6th Corps. General Emory of the 19th Corps at the centre had planted 
nearly all of his artillery on a hill about 150 feet above the creek, which com- 
manded the bridge on the pike and the neighboring fords. Not knowing the 
exact formation of Early's command, Sheridan, just before he left, had in- 
structed Wright to send Emory early in the morning of the 19th to make a 
reconnoissance. 

In the meantime, however, Early had decided upon an attack. His plan 
was to make a feint with light artillery and cavalry against Emory's right, 
while a large force of his army was to deliver a sudden blow on the 8th 
Corps' left. 

At night, while the feinting columns were keeping up firing near the 
19th Corps' right, the flanking forces secretly toiled along seven miles in the 
darkness through the rugged country. At daybreak, after struggling at many 
places in single file, they crossed the fords of the creek. Early in person 
started at 4 a. m. with Kershaw in the centre and Whalton on his left. A 
fog enabled these forces to cross the creek unobserved, where they stood 
waiting the sounds of the attack by the flankers coming under Gordon from 
the southeast. 

It happened that most of the 19th Corps were up eating breakfast and 
getting ready for their intended reconnoissance, when suddenly Kershaw, 
with a thunderous volley, charged upon that portion of the sleeping 8th 
Corps under Thoburn, who was near the creek well in advance and to the 
south of Emory. Thoburn's sleeping Blues were instantly put to route, Ker- 
shaw capturing seven guns, which he quickly turned, not only on the flying 
8th Corps, but also on the 19th Corps. Then suddenly was heard the rattle 
of battle, far to the left at the rear of the rest of the 8th Corps under Crook. 
This was the attack of the flankers under Gordon and Ramseur. As Crook's 
routed lines fled northward towards the pike, Gordon moved quickly to the 
left and, joining with the 'right of Kershaw, formed a line of battle, dashed 
upon the uncovered left and rear of the 19th Corps, which was compelled 
to retire and leave their camps in the possession of their foes, losing eleven 
guns. The onslaught and flre of the Grays was performed with such vigor, 
that the 1st Maine Battery had forty-nine horses killed in harness; General 
Grover and General Macauley were wounded, and Emory lost both his 
horses, besides which a number of men were stricken down. In the ensuing 



196 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 

retreat of both the 19th and 6th Corps the latter was forced to relinquish six 
of their guns. 

Keeping the 19th and 6th Corps fairly in hand, Wright retired with 
the remains of his command to Middletown some five miles east of Cedar 
Creek, fighting every inch of the way, with heavy losses until near 9 a. m., 
when the weary Grays, after marching all night and fighting since 4 a. m., 
ceased advancing. 

This lull gave Wright time for reorganization of his lines, which was 
going on rapidly until between ten and eleven o'clock, when Sheridan made 
his appearance on his return from Washington. 

For the benefit of the readers belonging to the 19th Corps and also 
their children the account of an eye-witness, Adjutant-General Irwin, is 
here quoted from his excellent history of the 19th Corps. After describing 
how the 19th gradually and in organized lines retired and finally got in po- 
sition west of the 6th Corps just east of Middletown about noon, he says: 
"The affair had now lasted five hours; the retreat was at an end; a tactical 
accident had carried it half a mile further than was intended. As it was, 
from the extreme front of Emory at daybreak to his extreme rear at eleven 
o'clock, the measured distance was but four miles. Every step of that way 
had been traversed under orders — under orders that carried the 19th Corps 
three times across the field of battle so that it marched (from its original 
position) in what might be represented by the letter N. 

"A murmur like the breaking of a surf on a far-off shore in the rear 
grew louder and swelled to a tumultous cheer, the cheers of the stragglers. 
As the men instinctively turned towards the sound they were seized with 
amazement to see the tide of stragglers setting strongly towards the south. 
Then out from among them into the field by the roadside cantered a little 
man on a black horse and from the ranks of his own cavalry rose the cry, 
'Sheridan!' Through all the ranks the message flashed as if it had been 
charged by the electric spark, set every man on his feet and made his heart 
once more beat high within him * * * At the suggestion of his aide- 
de-camp. Major George Forsyth, Sheridan rode the length of the line of 
battle to show himself to his men — hat in hand — and midst a tumult of 
cheers from regiment after regiment as he passed along. Sheridan possessed 
in a degree unequalled the power of raising the hearts of his soldiers, the 
sort of enthusiasm transmuting itself into action, that causes men to attempt 
impossibilities and to disregard and overcome obstacles — the feeling of an 
army for its general is a thing not to be reasoned with or explained away." 
How well the boys of the old 19th Corps will remember in what marked 
contrast General Banks was held by them during the dire campaigns in 
Louisiana! 

In the countercharge ordered by Sheridan Emory at first formed his corps 
in two lines, the first division under Dwight, on the right, and Grover, 
on the left, but soon the whole corps was deployed in one line in order 
from right to left by brigades of McMillan, Davis, Birge, Molineaux, Neafie, 
Shunk. The 90th Regiment boys do not have to be told that they were 
under Davis, adjoining the left of McMillan, nor that at the left 
of the 19th Corps the line of battle was extended eastward across the Pike 
by the 6th Corps. Between one and two Early advanced Gordon and 
Kershaw to a fresh attack at the point of junction of the 6th and 19th Corps, 
but after three or four volleys the attack was easily repulsed and com- 



THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL. WAR 197 

pletely thrown uff. A lull then occurred, when about 4 p. m. Sheridan 
gave the signal for the whole line to advance, beginning with Getty of the 
6th Corps on the left as a pivot, while the whole remaining right was to 
sweep onward and, driving the enemy before it, to swing southwestward 
towards the valley road and the lost camps. From that moment to the end 
the men hardly stopped an instant for anything. The resistance of the 
Confederates, though at first steady and here and there even spirited, was 
of short duration. For a few moments, indeed, the attack seemed to hang 
on the extreme right as McMillan, rushing on even more rapidly than the 
order of combat demanded, found himself suddenly enveloped by the right 
wheel of the brigade of the Grays under Evans, forming the extreme left 
of Gordon's division and of the Confederate army. But while McMillan was 
thus attacked and his leading troops were called to meet the danger, this, 
as suddenly as it had come, was swept away by the swift assault of Davis 
directly upon the front and flank of Evans. To do this Davis had not only 
to act instantly, but also to change front under a double fire, yet he and 
his brigade were equal to the emergency, and, McMillan joining in together, 
they not only threw off the attack of Evans, but, rushing through the re-en- 
trant angle of Gordon's line, quickly swept Evans off the field. Knowing 
this to be the critical point of his line Sheridan was there. "Stay where 
you are," were his orders, "till you see my boy Custer over there." "Thus 
upon the high ground appeared Custer at the head of his bold horsemen. 
Almost at the same instant the whole right of the line rushed to the charge, 
and, while Custer rode down Gordon's left flank, Dwight, with McMillan and 
Davis, began rolling up the whole Confederate line." — Irwin. It was in this 
charge that the 90th Regiment, which was in Davis' brigade, lost their color 
bearer, Francis Foley, of Hoboken, N. J. Meanwhile, on the left centre of the 
Union Army the attack likewise hung for a moment when Molineaux on the 
southern slope of a wooded hollow saw himself confronted by Kershaw on 
the opposite cre.st, only to be reached by climbing the steep bare sides of 
the "dirt hill" * * * jjis brigade and Birge's, rising up, charged boldly 
out of the hollow up the hill across the open ground and over the stone 
wall in the face of a fierce fire, settled the overthrow of Kershaw, and sent 
a panic running down the line of Ramseur. The 6th Corps on the left 
attacking with equal vigor, soon the disorder spread through every part 
of Early's force, and in rout and ruin the exultant victors of the morning 
were flying up the valley. Back to your camp had been the slogan ever 
since Sheridan's arrival. Dwight's men were the first to get back to theii; 
camps, but they were soon followed by the whole infantry. The cavalry 
did not stop to inspect their despoiled tents, but continued in the pursuit 
of the flying foe. 

And now another dramatic incident occurred; a single misplaced plank 
on a little bridge near Strasburg was the cause of 48 cannons, caissons and 
wagons falling into the Blues' hands, among which 24 cannons lost by 
themselves in the morning's defeat. Twelve hundred prisoners and several 
Ijattle flags were also captured. It was at the glut caused by the misplaced 
plank which Sheridan had seen that made him exclaim: "Oh, for a battery!" 
at which General Hayes (afterwards Pre.sident of the United States) 
promptly brought Sheridan the desired guns, which soon were busy pouring, 
with deadly aim, shot and shell on the "hold up" at the little bridge with 
the broken plank. 



I'JS THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 

Early reported a loss of 1,860 killed and 1,492 wounded. His General, 
Ramseur, was mortally wounded at the last Itand, and died a few days later 
"in the hands and under the care of his former comrades in Sheridan's 
army." The Blues' losses were as follows: 

6th Corps, 298 killed 1,628 wounded. 

19th Corps, 257 killed 1,336 wounded. 

8th Corps, 60 killed 342 wounded. 

The writer's regiment, the 90th New York, lost in killed and wounded 
73 out of a command of about 200, but the 114th and 124th, which were 
next in line with the 90th, suffered a loss of 43% of the men who were 
engaged in the battle. 

The following epitome as to his famous ride from Winchester is from 
Volume Two, Page 67 of Sheridan's Memoirs: 

Staying but a few hours with Halleck and Stanton at Washington, he 
reached Martinsburg on his hasty return the evening of October 17, and 
then, with his escort of 300 cavalry, arrived at Winchester at 4 p. m. of the 
18th, where he received a dispatch from Wright saying "everything at the 
front was all right" and that on the next morning early a division of the 
19th Corps under Emory would, in obedience to his order, make a recon- 
noissance. The next morning early, while in bed at Winchester, he heard 
firing in the direction of Cedar Creek, which he attributed to Emory's 
move. This tumult, as the reader knows, was caused by the onslaught of 
jordon and Kershaw on the rudely awakened 8th Corps. 

Getting restless, Sheridan says, he mounted and started for the front 
between 9 and 10 o'clock, at which time the battle of Cedar Creek had been 
won by the victorious Grays. 

"At Mill Creek," he says, "when, just as we made the crest of the rise 
beyond the stream, there burst upon our view the appalling spectacle of a 
panic-stricken army — hundreds of slightly wounded men, throngs of others 
unhurt but utterly demoralized, and baggage wagons by the score, all press- 
ing to the rear in hopeless confusion, telling too plainly that a disaster had 
occurred at the front." The flying fugitives told him that all was lost. 
Greatly disturbed at the sight, he at once ordered a brigade at Winchester 
to stretch across the valley and stop the runaways. "I continued at a 
walk," he writes, "a few hundred yards farther, thinking all the time of the 
intercepted Longstreet telegram, 'Be ready when I join you and we will 
crush Sheridan,' and preparing a definite plan to save my army or go 
down with it." Then, taking two of his aides-de-camp. Major George A. 
Forsyth and Captain Joseph O'Keefe, with twenty men from his escort, he 
started for the front, directing the remainder of his bodyguard to do all they 
could to stay the retreat of the distracted fugitives. In forcing his way 
south, many times he was obliged to leave the valley pike and make a detour 
by way of the field.s on account of the motley crowd blocking the road. 
Calling to the runaways, "We must go back and recover our camps," he 
was cheered with enthusiasm and immediately many prepared to face about 
and go with him. Major McKinley, of Crook's staff, afterwards President 
of the United States, greatly aided in getting the throng to organize and re- 
turn. He then described his course and arrival at the position of the 6th 
and 19th Corps, his consultation with Wright, whose plans he agreed with, 
and says: "Major Forsyth now suggested that it would be well to ride along 



T HE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 199 

the line of battle before the enemy attacked u.s, foi', though the troops had 
learned of my return, but few of them had seen me. Following his sug- 
gestion, I started in behind the men, but when a few paces had been taken 
I crossed to the front and, hat in hand, passed along the entire length of 
the infantry line, and thus it was from this circumstance that many of the 
officers and men who then received me with such heartiness have since 
supposed that that was my first appearance on the field. But at least two 
hours had elapsed since I reached the ground, for it was after midday that 
this incident of riding down the front took place, and I arrived not later 
than half-past ten." According to this account he was about an hour cover- 
ing the ten and three-quarter miles between Winchester and Middletown — 
not twenty as Thoma,s Buchanan Read puts it in his immortal heroic lyric 
of "Sheridan's Ride." 

In the Soldiers' Arlington Cemetery at Washington, D. C, on the site of 
the confiscated old Lee Homestead, stands to-day a massive stone holding 
Sheridan's bust of bronze in high relief. At the museum on Governor's Is- 
land in New York Harbor may be seen the preserved form, as natural as 
life, of the black horse Rienzi that carried Sheridan from Winchester to 
Cedar Creek. 

"With foam and with dust the black charger was gray; 

But the flash of his eye and his nostril's play, 
He seemed to the whole great army to say: 

I have brought you Sheridan all the way 
From Winchester down to save the day." 

The writer cannot forbear quoting the following comment by Lieutenant- 
Colonel F. A. Dodge, in his "Birdseye View of the Civil War," on the char- 
acter of the General who led his regiment through victory. 

"Sheridan was a typical soldier. Men who love fighting are rarely the 
best generals. A distinguished example of this was Charles XII. The keen 
enjoyment of the fray does not often exist with the power of cool calculation 
and intense mental effort essential to the commander of an army. But it did 
in Sheridan. It is hard to say whether he was best fitted to command a cav- 
alry corps or an army. In either capacity he excelled. Wherever Sheridan 
appears in the annals of the war, it is in stemming an adverse tide with a 
vigor almost unequalled, or in leading victorious troops to certain triumph. 
We cannot try him in the same balance as we try Stonewall Jackson, though 
he has some of the latter's traits; for Jackson w«n his important successes 
with scant material, and almost invariably against odds, while Sheridan's 
means were always ample, but his methods were sharp, clear, exact; and 
his power over men equalled his capacity as a soldier. His is a case of 
nascuitur, non fit." 

Early in the morning of October 19, just as the 90th regiment was re- 
tiring under a murderous fire of shot and shell and bullets, the commanding 
officer. Major John C. Smart, of Hoboken, N. J., was killed. He was a brave 
and gallant officer, at all times very dressy, even in the dirt and dust of 
campaigning managing to keep up an almost dress-parade appearance. After 
the countercharge by the Blues, when the regiment recovered the lo.st ground, 
Smart's body was found entirely stripped of his clothes. 

On the final charge in the afternoon, at the very eve of victory, and 
within sight of the lost camps, the regimental color bearer, Francis Foley, 



200 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL. WAR 



was shot dead (as already mentioned) and the flag at Albany, New York, still 
retains his bloodstains. Foley was twenty-^wo years of age. He was of fine 
build and a good-looking soldier, affable, quite a wag, and very popular with 
the boys, who greatly deplored his loss. Foley was a brother of the late 
Timothy and Michael Foley, prosperous builders at Hoboken, N. J. 

The dead and wounded of both Blue and Gray being now within the 
lines, detachments from each regiment were dispatched during the night 
with torches to bury the dead and gather in the helpless wounded. The 
bodies of the Gray were buried in little trenches dug at the places at which 
they were found, while in most cases each regimental party of the Blues 
carried their own dead to their camps, and on the next day these little 
cemeteries dotted over the whole army encampment, whose head-stones, 
made from rude boards, presented a most pathetic sight. It happened, how- 
ever, that Foley's body had been buried by others than his own regimental 
squad, just where he fell. The next day the writer, with John McGrane, 
(afterwards a leading builder at Hoboken, N. J.) with another comrade, 
spent the greater part of the day in making a rude coffin, by cutting slabs 
from the mahogany trees, using for the purpose what nails could be gathered 
from the ruins of some burned buildings near at hand. The burial party the 
night before had placed Foley's body in a trench so shallow that we found 
his shoes exposed above the ground. Over his body they had thrown his rub- 
ber blanket. In tenderly placing his body into the rough coffin we noticed 
that the weight of the covering soil had distorted to a slight extent one cheek, 
otherwise our poor comrade looked quite natural. The trench was ihen 
enlarged, the coffin lowered and a headboard with an inscription in lead 
pencil was erected. The reason why we did not take him to the cemetery 
at camp was because a dispatch had been received by the captain from his 
brother, Michael, saying that he and an undertaker were on their way to 
enbalm and take the body home. His remains lie in Calvary Cemetery, 
Brooklyn, New York, where his family erected a very imposing monument. 
Had Foley escaped that fatal shot, he would in all probability be now among 
the survivors of his regiment, as Cedar Creek was the last battle participated 
in by the 90th Regiment, for only some brisk skirmishes, mostly with Mosby's 
Guerillas occurred, during the following few months the regiment lay in the 
valley. 

The battle of Cedar Creek practically closed the campaign of the Grays 
in the Shenandoah Valley, and most of Early's infantry were returned to 
Genei-al Lee; Breckinridge was sent southwest, and the divisions which com- 
posed the 2nd Army Corps formerly commanded by Rhodes, Gordon and 
Ramseur were placed under Gordon, (the sole survivor of those three com- 
manders) and sent back to Lee. 

A few weeks after the Battle of Cedar Creek the Presidential election 
took place at the North. The canvass had been a very exciting one. In the 
early part it was believed by many public men that the people, wearied of 
the horrors of war, would denounce at the polls the Administration war 
program as a failure, and vote the peace party to the helm of the Govern- 
ment, but the gloom which prevailed during July and August gave way to 
joy and hope because of the victories of Farragut at Mobile Bay, Sherman 
in Georgia, and Sheridan in the Shenandoah Valley. The election resulted 
in Lincoln receiving 212 electors and McClellan but 21, these latter being 
from the States of New Jersey, Delaware and Kentucky; New York was very 



THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL. WAR 201 

close. Lincoln's popular majority was nearly 500,000. In Congress the Re- 
publicans secured a two-thirds majority. Rhodes, in his history, says: "In 
the first election of Lincoln the people of the North had declared their an- 
tagonism to slavery; did they remain true to their highest aspirations, they 
could not turn back, but must go forward. In spite of burdensome taxa- 
tion, weariness of war and mourning in every household, they decided to 
finish the work they began." Emmerson wrote a friend: "Seldom in history 
was so much staked upon a popular vote." 

On November 9, Sheridan moved north to Kernstown with the object 
of putting his army in winter quarters. Early's cavalry under Rosser fol- 
lowing up discovered Sheridan's movement, and ran foul of a division of the 
19th Corps with Torbert's cavalry and were badly routed on the 11th. 
Sheridan then prepared to give battle near the old field of Cedar Creek, but 
Early fell back and took headquarters at Saunton with what remained to 
him of Wharton's division, now constituting the entire Army of the Shenan- 
doah. These forces moved up and down the valley from time to time, but 
soon all operations by both parties ceased on account of scarcity of forage 
due to the denuding of the farms done by Sheridan in September. 

The Sixth Corps shortly after the battle of Cedar Creek returned to 
Grant at Petersburg, while Sheridan remained in the Valley with the two di- 
visions of the 19th Corps near Newtown. The 8th Corps was divided, part 
going to Petersburg and part to West Virginia. 

During the exceptionally cold, snowy winter little was done by Emory's 
19th Corps except an occasional skirmish with Mosby's pestering guerillas. 
During the winter, there being no enemy to fear, Emory's troops in small 
groups were allowed five days' furlough to visit their homes. Many of the 
men, among them the writer, feeling that the war was near to a close, de- 
clined the leave of absence, preferring to stick it out to the end. 

On January 6, the second division under Grover was sent to guard 
Savannah, Ga., while Emory with the writer's division, the first then near 
Harper's Ferry was sent to a place near Stevenson Station to guard the 
Valley. Finally on March 20, the old 19th Corps was broken up. Thus 
ended the career of the old guard which had done such signal service in 
Louisiana, at Port Hudson and Red River, before Petersburg and with 
Sheridan in the Valley. 

Just before the breaking up of the 19th Corps, General Sheridan was 
in Washington preparing to carry out Grant's orders, which were for him 
to hurry to Texas and watch the French invader of Mexico. Before his 
departure he visited and heartily greeted what was left of the infantry that 
had served him so well in the Shenandoah Valley, and when the men saw 
him approaching on the same gallant steed, "Rienzi," they broke out in 
a tumult of cheers. The writer had the supreme satisfaction of shaking 
the hand of "Little Phil." 

On February 27, 1865, in pursuance to Grant's plans, Sheridan with a 
force of 10,000, made up of his cavalry and some light artillery, started 
on an expedition against Lee's base of supplies at Danville, Va. His 
route lay southward up the Shenandoah Valley to Staunton, thence across 
the Blue Ridge Mountains, and finally southeastward to Grant's headquar- 
ters in front of Petersburg. On the way up the Valley no resistance was 
met with until the expedition reached Waynesboro, just below Staunton, 
where Early was posted with a small remnant of his former "army of the 



202 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL. WAR 

Valley," numbering a little over 1,000 troops, which Sheridan with his 
overwhelming numbers easily captured, Early, with two of his staff, how- 
ever, escaping. Shortly after this Lee very reluctantly retired Early from 
service by instruction of President Davis. 

Crossing the Blue Ridge Mountains, Sheridan, on March 2, reached 
Charlottesville, and, while waiting for his train of supplies to catch up, 
busied himself in distroying railroads leading into Richmond and Lynch- 
burg. On March 28 he joined Grant's forces at City Point. 

Grant had intended that Sheridan should continue south from Charlottes- 
ville through Virginia on a route to the west of Richmond, and destroy 
the James River canal, which Lee used for bringing him supplies from the 
West; thence continue into North Carolina and join Sherman, but the 
numerous swollen streams with all their bridges destroyed prevented that 
part of the plans being carried out. As Pollard says: "Sheridan had not 
completed the circuit designed for him, but he had traversed thirteen coun- 
tries and had done enormous damage — and his force proved a timely and 
import accession to Grant's strength in his final encounter." As a inatter of 
history, Sheridan did perform a most important and dramatic part in the 
final series of the struggle which resulted in the surrender of Lee in April. 



THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 203 



CHAPTER XX. 
The Fall of Richmond, 1865. 

Concentration of Union Forces Before Richmond — Lee Prepares to 
Evacuate the Capital — Lee Attaclts Port Steadman — Battle of White Oak 
Road — Of Five Forks — Capture of Forts Alexander and Gregg — Lee's Re- 
treat — Battle of Sailor's Creek — Lee's Surrender — Capture of Richmond — 
Flight and Capture of President Davis — Assassination of Lincoln. 

During the latter part of January, 18 65, while most of the National 
fleet which had been guarding the James River in the vicinity of Bermuda 
Hundred were absent on the Fort Fisher expedition, a small fleet of Con- 
federate vessels made a dash on some Union forts. This onslaught came to 
grief, however, one of their steamers being destroyed and two ironclads 
running aground. 

During February 5th and 6th, Warren's 5th Corps with Humphrey's 
2nd Corps and Gregg's cavalry of Grant's forces in front of Petersburg at- 
tempted to reach the south side railroad, but the loss of 1,500 men in this 
movement gained nothing for Grant, except to get a firmer hold on Hatcher's 
Run. 

In spite of Lee's success in flanking all of Grant's attempts thus far to 
extend the National lines westwardly, it was obvious that the end of the 
Southern Cause was drawing near. A brief review of the principal positions 
of the contending forces through the war zone, about the middle of March 
will make clear how the cordon which Grant had designed was slowly but 
surely drawing closer about the entire Confederate armies. 

After Thomas had scattered Hood's Army of the Tennessee, as we have 
read, Schofield's 23rd Corps was shipped by rail and transports from Ten- 
nessee to join the expedition for the capture of Fort Fisher and the City of 
Wilmington in North Carolina, and on March 21, 1865, after capturing these two 
places, Schofield was standing at Goldsborough, waiting the coming of Sher- 
man's army, which had beeen plodding its weary way all winter, northward 
from Savannah, Ga., through persistent heavy weather and abominable 
roads. Sherman had been constantly harassed by Joe Johnston's 28,000 
men, who had used every available opportunity to strike Sherman's ad- 
vanced columns. Of these movements of Sherman's throughout the South 
and North Carolinas, Dodge says: "Joe Johnston complimented Sherman's 
veterans as being the toughest and most ready men since Julius Caesar com- 
manded his Gallic legions." Besides Lee in Virginia and Johnston in North 
Carolina, the Confederates had 9,000 under Maury defending Mobile, Ala., 
that was about to be attacked by General Canby's Louisiana troops which 
had been reinforced by A. J. Smith's Corps of Thomas' old command. 
Thomas also sent Grierson's cavalry against Breckinridge through Tennessee 
and Mississippi. He sent another expedition under Wilson against the 
doughty Forrest in Alabama and a third under Stoneman, for the second 
time, was dispatched on a road southward into the Carolinas to cut Lee's 
railroad communications and destroy his depots of supplies. At the time 
we are now writing, Stoneman was at Salisbury, N. C, to the northwest of 



204 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 

Joe Johnston. Of the remaining Confederate forces under Price in Mis- 
souri, all that is to be said is that it soon' fell to pieces from desertions. 

The Southern armies at this time being so reduced in numbers, and 
so largely outnumbered by the Northern armies, Lee proposed to enroll the 
black slaves, but before this could be consummated the war closed; other- 
wise it would have occurred that black slaves would have been fighting 
black freemen. Grant's strength, confronting Lee in March, 1865, was 
122,000, while Lee had at best, but 70,000. 

On March 24, Grant issued orders for a grand assault along Lee's 
entire line to take place on the 29th. Lee was now preparing to evacuate 
Richmond and Petersburg, with the intention of moving rapidly southwest- 
ward to join his forces with those of Joe Johnston, who was then in North 
Carolina; then together they could fly to the mountains and might prolong 
the war. In order to facilitate this movement and make good his retreat, 
Lee directed an attack upon Fort Steadman, one of Grant's strong points near 
the site of the famous mine. Should this assault prove successful, it would 
naturally cause Grant to draw off from his left, and thus leave the passage 
weakened for Lee's march to the southwest. Again the success of this 
assault would break Grant's line in twain and the destruction of his supply 
station at City Point might follow. For some time prior to this a number 
of Lee's disheartened men had been deserting and surrendering themselves 
to the National pickets. In order to encourage this desertion. Grant issued 
a circular in which was offered a prize to every deserter who would bring 
in a gun. 

Long before daybreak on March 25, taking advantage of the permission 
given by Grant to the Confederate deserters to enter the National lines, 
squads of Confederates were sent forward as if to surrender at a point op- 
posite Fort Steadman, which was not over one hundred yards from their 
own works. These were, of course, received without suspicion as deserters, 
when suddenly they rose on the Union pickets and captured them; then 
quickly tearing down the abatis, three columns of Gordon's Corps rushed on 
the works. The central column scaled the side of Fort Steadman and easily 
subdued the garrison, while at the same time the other two captured bat- 
teries to the right and left. Unfortunately for Lee's plan his 20,000 troops 
who were to follow up and support Gordon, failed to move forward, and soon 
Gordon's successful pioneers were assailed at all points by a deluge of 
bullets, shot and shells. Hartraft's division quickly checked Gordon's right 
column; Wilcox held back the left, while the artillery from the rear stopped 
the centre one. The assailants were now isolated and huddled together in 
the works they had captured, with the path of their retreat swept by a 
sheet of flaming missiles, which not only prevented their escape, but also 
the approach of succor, and after a short but fruitless resistance they yielded. 
Of the 5,000 chargers, 3,000 were killed, wounded or captured. Grant ad- 
mitted a loss of 2,000, and says: "That after recapturing the batteries taken 
by the Confederates, our troops made a charge and carried the enemy's en- 
trenched picket line, which they strengthened and held. This, in turn, gave 
us but a short distance to charge over when our attack came a few days 
later." 

This abortive attempt of Lee neither ha.stened nor retarded Grant's 
plans. It did not cause him, as was expected, to weaken his left and thus 
leave the path open for Lee to join Johnston. On the contrary, Grant's 



THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 205 

left was reinforced by Sheridan with his 10,000 cavalry veterans that had 
just arrived after an eight months' absence in the Shenandoah Valley Cam- 
paign against Early. As we will see, Sheridan was enabled materially to aid 
in causing the surrender of Lee. 

About this time General Sherman visited Grant and an important con- 
ference took place between President Lincoln, Grant and Sherman, when 
the latter immediately returned to Savannah, Ga., to continue his march north 
through the Carolinas. 

Draper mentions the following incident at this time: "Grant and his 
staff left (March 29) City Point for the left of the line some eighteen miles 
distant. President Lincoln accompanied them to the train. As they stepped 
aboard, he stood grasping the iron rod of the rear car, saying, 'I wish I 
could go with you.' " That night Sheridan's cavalry, numbering 10,000, 
three times the number of horsemen under Fitzhugh Lee, in front of them, 
reached Dinwiddle Courthouse, seventeen miles as the crow flies, west of 
Petersburg, thus forming Grant's extreme left. Grant wrote Sheridan: 
"Our line is now unbroken from the Appomattox to Dinwiddle — I feel 
now like ending the matter, if it is possible to do so before going back — In 
the morning push around the enemy, if you can and get on his right rear — 
We will act together as one army, until it is seen what can be done with the 
enemy." From the night of March 29 to the morning of the 31st, the rain 
fell in such torrents that it was impossible "to move a wheel." In fact, as 
Grant tells us, to bring forward the artillery through the quicksand, corduroy 
roads had to be constructed along the entire route. These had been weary, 
painful winter months for both combatants, cramped up in their respective 
miserable trenches, suffering exposure from all kinds of weather, with 
musketry firing almost incessantly and the daily booming of artillery. The 
overworked Confederates did not have the occasional fostering care, which 
was from time to time bestowed upon the Nationals by the "Sanitary 
Commission." These devoted ladies and gentlemen from their homes at 
the North brought little delicacies of food and comfort to alleviate the 
distress of Grant's men. While as Pollard says: "In the words of one of their 
officers, 'each night the Confederates unfolded their blankets and unloosened 
their shoestrings in uncertainty.' " On the night of March 29, Lee, per- 
ceiving the movement of Sheridan's cavalry towards the south side railroad, 
dispatched two brigades of Johnson's division under Pickett and Bushrod, 
Huger's and Ramson's infantry with Fitzhugh Lee's cavalry, some 17,000 
strong to thwart Sheridan's turning columns. The right of the Confed- 
erates' entrenched line crossed Hatcher's Run at the Boydtown Plankroad, 
about eight miles southwest of Petersburg (as the crow flies) and extended 
a short distance along the White Oak Road. About five miles we.st of the 
end of this line was a place where several roads from north and south 
converged on the White Oak Road, forming what was known as Five Forks — 
a point of great strategic importance, as it opened up the whole region which 
Lee was now endeavoring to cover. 

Sheridan's advance encountered the two divisions under Pickett and 
Johnson, and in the afternoon this Confederate force made a determined 
charge upon Sheridan's whole cavalry line, forced it back and drove it to a 
point within two miles of Dinwiddle Courthouse, which was four miles 
southeast of Five Forks. Sheridan's retreat was most ma.sterfully con- 
ducted, for which Grant in his report of the affair gave him great credit. 



206 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL. WAR 

On the morning of April 1, Sheridan was placed in command of all the 
forces constituting the extreme left of Grant's line. This consisted of War- 
ren's 5th Corps and his own cavalry. Pollard thus described the battle: 
"In the afternoon Pickett and Johnson found themselves confined within 
their works at Five Forks and flanked by a part of the 5th Corps, which 
had moved (west) by the White Oak Road. The Confederate troops, having 
got the idea that they were entrapped and finding themselves pressed in 
front, fiank and rear, most of them threw down their arms. Five thousand 
men surrendered themselves as prisoners." Draper writes: "There were 
few battles in the Civil War more brilliant than Five Forks. Sheridan's 
firmness had been proved at Murfreesborough, his energies at Missionary 
Ridge, his generalship in the sortie of Early (in the Shenandoah Valley); 
in the battle of Five Forks he displayed all these qualities at once. The 
remnant of the divisions of Pickett and Johnson fled westward of Five 
Forks demoralized and past control, and Lee found that his right wrenched 
violently from his centre, was turned almost without a battle, and what he 
had counted on as the bulk of his army was now no longer of any use." 
Pollard says: "It was the only occasion on which the Confederate com- 
mander ever exhibited anything like reproof on the field. He remarked 
that the next time the troops were to be taken into action he would put 
himself at the head of them; and, turning to one of his Brigadiers, he 
ordered him with singular emphasis and severity to gather and put under 
guard 'all the stragglers on the field,' making a plain reference to the con- 
duct of his officers." Pollard further writes: "However, the fate of Peters- 
burg and Richmond was decided without this event. On the night of April 
1, Grant celebrated the victory of Five Forks, and performed the prelude of 
what was yet to come, by a fierce and continuous bombardment all along 
his line in front of Petersburg." It will be remembered that Sheridan's 
command of the infantry and artillery of the 5th Corps, with his own 
cavalry and flying artillery was the only floating or foot-loose force of 
Grant's immense army. The rest were still in the trenches from Hatcher's 
Run on the left, to the Appomattox on the right. 

At dawn of the 2nd Grant made his assault in double column at dif- 
ferent points along the entire Confederate lines, Parke being on the right, 
Wright in the centre, and Ord on the left. Parke and Wright made a 
vicious assault on Gordon's lines, and secured some breastworks near the 
Appomattox. The Confederates retreated to their inner line of works from 
which the Nationals' captured position was exposed to raking artillery fire. 
Pollard thus describing the fighting going on in the meantime on Lee's 
right: 

"Hill's left was opposite a position the weakest in the line, from which 
McGowan's brigade had been transferred the day previous, leaving only 
artillerists in the trenches and the pickets in front. The Confederate skirmish- 
ers were driven with impunity; the batteries were carried in a moment and 
loud huzzas that drowned the sound of battle on other parts of the line pro- 
claimed that the enemy had obtained an important success." (This was the 
success of Wright, Ord, Humphreys, Miles and also Sheridan on the left. 
Grant tells us Sheridan swept down from Five Forks towards Petersburg, 
when he was reinforced by Miles; Wright, with the 6th Corps, swung around 
to its left, moved to Hatcher's Run and swept everything, while Ord and 
Humphreys gained works in their fronts. Lee made frantic efforts to regain 



THE CAMPAIGNS OP THE CIVIL WAR 207 

his lost works in front of Parke, but failed with heavy loss. He then 
hurried Longstreet to his extreme left, when Grant instructed Weitzel, then 
at Bermuda Hundred, to push in to Richmond when he found an opening.) 

Just in rear, some two or three hundred yards on many parts of the 
Confederates' outer line, heavy forts had been erected to guard against just 
such results as was now to happen. Among these works were Forts Alex- 
ander and Gregg, and these were all that now prevented the National.s 
from forcing the Confederates on to the Appomattox in their rear. Grant 
made the assault at 1 o'clock. Before the Nationals' charges carried these 
forts they were repulsed several times by a mere handful of hard-pressed 
garrisons, who stood by their guns to the last shot, which was fired while 
the Nationals were on the ramparts. 

A full, delectable, and masterful description of the heroic stand at 
Ports Alexander and Gregg is given by Pollard, from which we quote in 
part: "With the fall of Fort Gregg, the Confederate line was cut in two, but 
the events had been marked by a heroic self-immolation of the 250 de- 
fenders; there were not more than 30 survivors and to the illuminated story 
of the Army of Northern Virginia, Fort Gregg gave a fitting conclusion, an 
ornament of glory that will clasped the records of its deeds." Lee, in- order 
to strengthen his defeated lines on his right, ordered, while the resistance 
of Port Gregg was going on, Longstreet with Binning's brigade of Field's 
division from the north side of the James River to form a fresh line in 
front of Petersburg. Heth's division of A. P. Hill's corps now regained 
some ground. But in the execution of the movement, the famous General 
Hill was killed by one of a party of six National soldiers. "A little while 
after the fall of Fort Gregg," Pollard writes, "ominous columns of smoke 
arose from numerous depots and warehouses of Petersburg. It was eleven 
o'clock in the morning when Lee wrote a hasty telegram to the War Depart- 
ment advising that the authorities of Richmond should have everything in 
readiness to evacuate the Capitol at 8 o'clock the coming night." Grant, 
in his Memoirs, says: "During the night of April 2, our line was entrenched 
from the river above (Appomattox) to the river below. I ordered a bom- 
bardment to commence the next morning at 5 a. m., to be followed by an 
assault at 6, but the enemy evacuated Petersburg the next morning early." 

Before dawn of April 2, 1865, Lee evacuated Richmond and Petersburg, 
aiming for Danville as agreed upon some time prior between himself and 
President Davis. Two columns of his army moved southwestward from Rich- 
mond, while a third marched northwestward from Petersburg. The three 
columns united on the 4th at Amelia Courthouse, which was thirty-flve 
miles directly southwest of Richmond and about the same distance in a 
straight line northwest of Petersburg. Here Lee had ordered the trains on 
the Danville railroad to unload supplies for his army, but through a blunder, 
the cars with the food went on to Richmond. This disaster left Lee'^ 
troops without a scrap of food; besides Grant's army was now in rapid 
pursuit. Lee was then compelled to change his plan of going to Danville, 
and began preparations to get his army to the north side of the Appomattox 
River; the place for crossing was to be at Farmville about thirty miles 
directly northwest of Amelia Courthouse. Lee heard on the afternoon of 
the 4th, that Sheridan with the 2nd, 5th and 6th Corps were at Petersville, 
seven miles southwest of his position at Amelia Courthouse. With his men 
suffering from hunger he started his jaded army on the last desperate 



208 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 

chance to escape to the region of hills in the direction of Farmville, intend- 
ing to get his army to the north side of the river. The start was made 
on the 5th. 

All the while Grant was directing the whole of Meade's Army of the 
Potomac in pursuit of Lee. He ordered General Weitzel, who was at Bermuda 
Hundred, to occupy Richmond and Petersburg. Another misfortune befell 
Lee, as Sheridan tells us in his Memoirs: "Two scouts brought me the 
following captured orders from Lee to his Commissary-General: 'The army 
is at Amelia Courthouse, short of provisions. Send (via Danville railroad) 
300,000 rations quickly to Burkeville Junction.' " These were in duplicate, one 
addressed to Danville, the other to Lynchburg. This information gave 
Sheridan the location and the strength of his enemy. He let the telegrams go 
through to their respective destinations, intending to capture the rations before 
they reached Burkeville. A race was now on between Lee and Sheridan, 
with his cavalry, and the 2nd, 5th and 6th Corps, for Burkeville, a station 
on the Danville railroad some seventeen miles southwest of Amelia Court- 
house, in which Sheridan won. He hurried his cavalry to the left across 
country, riding parallel with Lee's columns, and keeping up a running fire. 
Merritt's and Custer's Cavalry attacked vigorously the retiring columns, 
destroyed many of the wagons and took a number of prisoners. On the 
6th Lee reached Sailor's Creek, a tributary of the Appomattox which entered 
the same a few miles east of Farmville where Lee intended to make his 
crossing. Sheridan, however, had his force astride of Lee's path, and cut 
off Longstreet, of Lee's advance, who was waiting at Rice's station. This 
movement placed Ewell's Corps, composed of Anderson, Kersaw and Curtis 
Lee's division, Stagg's brigade and Miller's battery, in complete isolation 
and led to the battle of Sailor's Creek. 

The conflict of Sailor's Creek was one of the severest battles of the war, 
because the Confederates fought with desperation to escape capture, and the 
Nationals, bent upon the destruction of the enemy, were no less eager and 
determined. The flanking movement by Sheridan's forces soon led to the 
downfall of Ewell, with 10,000 of his command, including Generals Kersaw, 
Barton, Corse, Dubois and Curtis Lee. 

Sheridan then reported to Grant: "If the thing is pressed, Lee will 
surrender." Grant forwarded this dispatch to Lincoln, who promptly re- 
plied: "Let the thing be pressed." On the 7th, Sheridan attacked Lee's 
main body on the north side of the Appomattox and captured General 
Gregg with many men. It was here that Lee changed his course from Dan- 
ville to that of Lynchburg, but Sheridan forced Merritt, Crook and Mackenzie 
across his path. Just then, at Prospect Station, four trains of cars with the 
300,000 rations which Lee had sent for, arrived. Custer made a detour and 
broke the railroad to prevent the trains getting away. Lee's advance 
reached the trains at the same time. Custer got to the station and promptly 
attacked, and forced Lee back to Appomattox Courthouse and captured the 
supplies. Sheridan kept fighting all night and the next day with his cavalry 
on the run. Grant hurried Ord to support Sheridan, who reached the goal 
at sunrise after a hard all night march. Lee crossed the river at Farmville 
April 7, burned the railroad bridge, but Humphreys, of Meade's army, got up 
in time to save the wagon bridge, which he crossed, and attacking, was 
repulsed by the heroic Confederates. 

On the 8th, Lee decided if Sheridan's cavalry were alone, to break 



THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 209 

through and push on, but if infantry were supporting the cavalry, he would 
open communications with Grant for terms of capitulation. General Gordon, 
who so far had formed the rear guard from Petersburg and had fought 
daily with Meade's men to shield the trains, was now in the advance, and, 
when asked by Lee what chances there were of successfully making the 
break forward, said: "My old corps is reduced to a frazzle and unless 
supported by Longstreet heavily, I do not think we can do anything." When 
this report from Gordon was brought to Lee by Colonel Fenable, he is 
reported to have said: "Then there is nothing left me but to go and see 
General Grant." Gordon did advance, however, and drove Custer back over a 
mile, but then, running up against the infantry, was compelled to fall back 
again. Just then Lee's letter, reaching Grant, the latter ordered a sus- 
pension of hostilities. Sheridan, in speaking in his Memoirs of this mo- 
mentous occasion, says: "When I neared my troops, a heavy line of infantry 
was bearing down on us in front of Crook and Mackenzie. Firing had 
already begun. I could see the bivouac of Lee's army and was about to 
order the attack when Custer sent word, 'Lee has surrendered; do not 
charge; the white flag is up.' The enemy had seen my preparations for the 
charge and sent the white flag to Custer's front." Sheridan then per- 
sonally advanced and met General Gordon, who remarked that Lee asked 
for a suspension of hostilities pending negotiations he is having with General 
Grant. "I would not," says Sheridan, "entertain any terms but sur- 
render." "Then," said Gordon, "we will renew hostilities." Gordon went 
to the rear and came back with Longstreet, who had a duplicate dispatch 
of Lee to Grant. Sheridan then sent for Grant and hurried word to Meade, 
as the Confederates feared the latter might attack their rear guard. Grant 
arrived at 1 o'clock, saying: "How are you, Sheridan?" Sheridan answering: 
"First rate." 

Lee's Surrender — Generals Grant, Sheridan and Ord then went forward with 
their staffs to McLean's house, where General Lee was waiting. "When I en- 
tered," says Sheridan in his Memoirs, "General Lee was standing, as was also his 
military secretary. Colonel Marshall, his only staff officer present. General 
Lee was dressed in a new uniform and wore a handsome sword. His tall, com- 
manding figure thus set off contrasted strongly with the short figure of 
General Grant clothed as he was in a soiled suit, without sword or other 
insignia of his position, except a pair of dingy shoulder straps. After being 
presented, Ord and I and nearly all of Grant's staff withdrew to wait the 
agreement as to terms, and after a little while Colonel Babcock came to the 
door and said: 'The surrender has been made; you can come in again.' About 
3 p. m., the terms being written out and accepted, General Lee left the house, 
and as he departed cordially shook hands with General Grant." He returned to his 
house in Richmond on April 12. Pollard the Southern historian says: "Indeed the 
Pederar commander had in his closing scenes of the contest, behaved with a 
magnanimity and decorum that must ever be remembered to his credit even by 
those who dispute his reputation in other respects and denied his claim to 
great generalship. He had with an amicable facility afforded honorable 
and liberal terms to the vanquished army. He did nothing to dramatize the 
surrender; he made no triumphal entry into Richmond; he avoided all those 
displays of triumph so dear to the Northern heart; he spared everything that 
might wound the feelings or imply the humiliation of a vanquished foe. 
There were no indecent exultations; no sensations; no show; he received 



210 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL. WAR 

the surrender of his adversary with every courteous recognition due an honor- 
able enemy, and conducted the closing scenes with as much simpUcity as 
possible." 

These are the terms of surrender Grant personally wrote out, which Lee 
accepted: 

"Appomattox Courthouse, 

"Virginia, April 9, 1865. 
"General — In accordance with the substance of my letter to you of the 
8th Instant, I propose to receive the surrender of the Ariny of Northern 
Virginia on the following terms, to wit: Rolls of all the officers and men 
to be made in duplicate, one copy to be given to an officer to be designated 
by me, the other to be retained by such officer or officers as you may 
designate. The officers to give their individual paroles not to take up arms 
against the Government of the United States, until properly exchanged; and 
each company or regimental commander to sign a like parole for the men of 
their commands. The arms, artillery and public property to be parked and 
stacked, and turned over to the officers appointed by me to receive them. 
This will not embrace the side-arms of the officers nor their private horses or 
baggage. This done, each officer and man will be allowed to return to his 
home, and not to be disturbed by United States authority so long as they 
observe their paroles and the laws in force where they may reside. 

"U. S. Grant, Lieutenant-General. 
"General R. E. Lee." 

Immediately after the surrender the Nationals prepared food for the 
famishing Confederates. On April 12, Lee's army to the number of 25,000 
formally laid down their arms in compliance with the terms of surrender, 
whereupon Grant provided transportation for the troops to their respective 
homes. A salute of 200 guns was ordered by Lincoln to be fired at every 
army headquarters, in honor of the victory. 

The Southern historian, Pollard, gives the following graphic account 
of the state of affairs in Richmond at the time of its evacuation by Lee's 
Army of the Confederate Government: 

"The people were kept in ignorance of the fighting of the few days 
prior to Lee's evacuation, and, when suddenly the city government found 
the Davis Administration, the War and other Departments preparing to go, 
disorder immediately took reign. It was proposed to maintain order in the 
city by two regiments of militia; to destroy every drop of liquor in the ware- 
houses and stores, and to establish a patrol through the night. But the 
militia ran through the fingers of their officers; the patrol could not be 
found after a certain hour, and in a short time the whole city was plunged 
into mad confusion and indescribable horrors. The Confederate troops 
were silently withdrawing on the James River from General Weitzel'S front, 
their rear guard traversing the city before daybreak. It was an extra- 
ordinary night; disorder, pillage, shouts, mad revelry of confusion. The 
gutters ran with liquor freshets, the fumes filled the air. Stores were 
entered at pleasure and stripped from top to bottom; yells of drunken men, 
shouts of roving pillagers, wild cries of distress filled the air, and made 
night hideous. But a new horror was to appear. To the rear guard of 
Ewell's departing forces had been left the duty of blowing up the ironclad 
vessels in the James River and destroying the bridges across that river. The 



THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL. WAR 211 

little shipping at the warehouses was fired, the three bridges were wrapped 
in flames as soon as the last troop had traversed them. 

"General Ewell, obeying the strict letter of his instructions, fired the four 
principal tobacco warehouses in the very heart of the city. In vain Mayor 
Mayo remonstrated. The conflagration passed rapidly beyond control, and 
in this made Are, the wild, unnecessary destruction of property, the citi- 
zens of Richmond had a fitting souvenir of the imprudence and reckless- 
ness of the departing Administration. 

"At sunrise, the cry went up: 'Yankees, Yankees,' from the crowd which 
went tearing up Main Street from imaginary danger. Presently, the 40th 
Massachusetts Cavalry trotted in, and ih a few moments the National colors 
were fluttering on the Capitol. A few hours later. General Weitzel entered. 
In the meantime, the fired raged with unchecked fury. The entire business 
part of jthe city was on fire. All during the forenoon, flames and smoke 
and burning brands and showers of blazing sparks filled the air, spreading 
still further the destruction, until it had swept before it every bank, every 
auction store, every insurance office, nearly every commission-house, and 
most of the fashionable stores. Already piles of furniture had been col- 
lected here, dragged from the ruins of burning houses, and in uncouth 
arrangements, made with broken tables and bureaus, were huddled women 
and children with no home, with no resting place in Heaven's great hollow- 
ness. 

"The fire had consumed the most important part of Richmond. The 
pencil of the surveyor could not have more distinctly marked out the 
business portion of the city. 

The first duty "Weitzel had to perform was to check the rushing flames, 
and to this his men bent every effort." 

Jefferson Davis tells us that "In obedience to a law of Congress, General 
Ewell had made arrangements to burn the tobacco whenever the evacuation 
of the city rendered the burning necessary." That General's report of 
December 20, 1865, which can be found in the "Historical Society Papers," 
Volume 1, Page 101, satisfactorily establishes the fact that the conflagration 
of Richmond April 2, 1865, did not result from any act of the public authori- 
ties. Suffice it to say that the troops of neither army were considered 
responsible for that calamity. 

Jefferson Davis received while attending church Sunday morning of 
April 2, Lee's telegram stating his intention of evacuating Richmond and 
Petersburg. The President almost immediately took train for Danville with 
his Cabinet family and two hundred picked men, expecting to meet Lee at 
that place. On the 5th, in a proclamation, he said: "Let us not despond, 
my countrymen." On the 10th, receiving the news of Lee's surrender, he 
left Danville to join Johnston's army, and on the way was nearly captured. 
On meeting Johnston and Beauregard, he urged them to attack Sherman, 
but Johnston demurred, saying that it could not succeed and that even the 
populace was against any further bloodshed. A few days after trudging 
along by humble wagons, his Cabinet abandoned him at Charlotte and here 
went out of existence the Confederate Administration. 

At this time, the United States Government had offered a reward of 
$100,000 for Davis' capture, and every available cavalry force was sent in 
pursuit of him. On May 7, at Dublin, Ga., a negro came into the camp of 
Colonel Hamden and told him that Davis and his family had passed that day. 



212 THE CAMPAIGNS OP THE CIVIL WAR 

The Colonel and his horsemen went in pursuit through the trackless wild 
pine forests. Four miles on he met another pursuing party under Colonel 
Pritchard. Taking different routes, Pritchard's party came within a short 
distance of Davis' camp at 2 a. m. of May 10, and, while they were in the 
act of surprising the fugitives, a sharp firing was heard, which turned out 
to be an accidental collision of some of Pritchard's men and the other 
party, in which encounter, unfortunately, two men were killed and several 
wounded. Davis says that, just as he was going out of his tent with a 
tin pail to get water, hearing the firing, his wife threw a shawl over his 
head, and that, having slept all right in a "water-proof," this attire gave rise 
that he was attempting to escape disguised. However, on being halted by a 
corporal with pointed gun, he surrendered. For many months, he was 
lodged in Fortress Monroe, and then set at liberty. He wrote his "Rise and 
Fall of the Confederate Government" in 1886, and in its concluding para- 
graphs, he says: "In asserting the right of secession, it has not been my wish 
to incite to its exercise. I recognize the fact that the war showed it to be 
impracticable, but this did not prove it to be wrong; and now that it may 
not be again attempted, and that the Union may promote the general wel- 
fare, it is needful that the truth, the whole truth, should be known, so 
that crimination and recrimination may forever cease, and then on the 
basis of fraternity and faithful regard for the rights of the States, there may 
be written on the arch of the Union, 'Esto perpetua.' " 

On April 14, 1865, four days after the surrender of Lee and the virtual 
close of the war. President Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth, 
an actor, while attending a Washington theatre. Booth, sneaking in by the 
rear of the private box occupied by the Presidential party, shot the Presi- 
dent in the back of the head, and after stabbing Major Rathbone, who 
attempted to prevent his escape, jumped from the box on to the stage, and 
flourishing the blood-stained dagger, dramatically declaimed, "Sic Semper 
Tyrannis." This lamentable event was a sad blow to the North, but a far 
sadder one to the South. The President's last public words two nights before 
his death were: "In the present situation as the phrase goes, it may be 
my duty to make some new announcement to the people of the South. I am 
considering and shall not fail to act when satisfied that action will be 
proper." He referred, as Logan says, "to his plans, for reconstructing and 
rebuilding the waste and desolate places in the South which war had made. 
At this time, of all times, when his clear and just perceptions and firm 
patriotism were most needed, alike by North and South, his was a plan upon 
which both sections could safely divide, while the old issues of State-Rights, 
Secession, Free Trade and Slavery would be buried forever." 

Emerson, in speaking of Lincoln's character, says: "He was a man 
without vices. He had a .strong sense of duty, which he readily obeyed. 
He grew according to the need, his mind mastered the problem of the day, 
and as the problem grew so grew his comprehension. Rarely was a man 
so fitted for the event," and D'Aubigne says: "The name of Lincoln will 
remain one of the greatest that history has inscribed on its annals." 



THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 213 

CHAPTER XXI. 

Closing Campaigns of the War, 1865. 

Raids of Grierson and Stoneman — Canby's Campaign Against Mobile — 
Battle of Spanish Fort — Of Blakely — Evacuation of Mobile — Wilson's Raid — 
Selma — Surrender of Cobb at Macon — Surrender of Taylor to Canby — Sher- 
man's March Through the Carolinas — Various Engagements — The Burning of 
Columbia — Battle of Fayetteville — Averysboro — Bentonville — Meeting of 
Lincoln, Grant and Sherman — Johnston's Surrender to Sherman — Kirby 
Smith's Surrender — The Last Shots of the War — Disbanding of the Troops — 
The Grand Review of Troops at Washington — Results of the War to the 
Republic. 

General Grant, in his report of 1865, made after the close of the war, 
says: "In the latter part of 1864 and the spring of 1865, the following opera- 
tions were simultaneously taking place: 

1st. Stoneman with 5,000 cavalry raiding from East Tennessee. 

2nd. Another 8,000 cavalry raiding from Vicksburg under Grierson. 

3rd. 10,000 cavalry under Wilson raiding southeasterly from Eastport, 
Miss. 

4th. Canby at Mobile, Ala., with 38,000. 

5th. Sherman with his large army eating out the vitals of the Caro- 
linas." 

It was December 28, 1864, when the Confederate General Hood, with 
the remnant of his jaded and exhausted Army of the Tennessee, crossed to 
the south of the Tennessee River, after his defeat at Nashville by Thomas, his 
pursuit having been checked by the torrential rains and impassable roads. 

Draper estimates that in the latter part of 1864, the Confederate forces 
existing between the AUeghanies and the Mississippi River, numbered but 
21,000, 9,000 of which were at Mobile; the rest were at Meridian, Miss., 
under Taylor, with whom were Breckinridge and the doughty Forrest. 

Grierson started from Memphis, December 21, 18 64, on a raid through 
Mississippi, and a few days later surprised and captured a camp of Forrest's 
men at Verona, Miss. Continuing his raid, he passed through in quick 
succession, Egypt, Winona, Bankston, Grenada and finally returned to 
Vicksburg on January 5, 1865. While Grierson was making his raid through 
Mississippi, Breckinridge with his Grays was making trouble for the North 
in East Tennessee. At Morristown, he whipped the Blues under Gillem, 
capturing many prisoners and artillery. 

General Thomas, who commanded this Department, then united Gillem's 
and Burbridge's forces at Bean Station under General Stoneman to retaliate 
on Breckinridge. 

The first clash of Stoneman's men with those of Breckinridge was on 
December 12 and 16, at Marion. The onslaught of the Grays was repulsed, 
and they were chased to Wytheville, where another battle was fought in 
which Breckinridge lost two large trains of supplies and everything of 
military value. 

Having accomplished the purpose of his raid, Stoneman returned; 
Burbridge went to Lexington and Gillem to Knoxville. 



214 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 



Again, about March 20, 1865, Thomas sent Stoneman on a second raid; 
without serious resistance he passed through Boone, North Carolina, Wythe- 
ville, Chambersburg, Bick Lick and to within a few miles of Lynchburg, 
Va., leaving in his track utter devastation and ruin. Then, turning towards 
Greensboro, he continued his destruction of everything of military value. 

At Salisbury, N. C, he defeated a force under Gardner, capturing 14 
guns and 1,300 prisoners, and, returning to Tennessee, kept up the work 
of destruction along his path. The small scattered bands of the Grays 
were unable to cope with these well-equipped and formidable forces, and it 
was evident to all that the Southern cause was crumbling to pieces, despite 
the heroic and exhausting efforts of the Grays to save it. 

On March 25, 1865, General Canby began his movements for the capture 
of the city of Mobile, in accordance with Grant's instruction. His command 
in Louisiana had been reinforced after the defeat of General Hood in 
Tennessee the December before, by a portion of General Thomas' veterans 
(A. J. Smith's Corps), so that, at the start, Canby's forces numbered nearly 
60,000. 

Pollard says the defensive works of Mobile were very strong, and the 
supply of food, for a siege, was abundant; but the garrison was few in 
number and the supply of ammunition was low. 

The state of affairs in the Confederacy, that is, Grant holding Lee at 
Petersburg, and Sherman pushing north through the Carolinas against 
Johnston, made it impossible for the Davis Administration to send either 
troops or ammunition to Mobile, or in fact, anywhere else. 

The Confederate forces about Mobile to the number of 8,000 infantry 
and some 1,500 cavalry were under the command of General Maury. 

The Appalachie River was commanded near its mouth by Spanish Fort, 
about twelve miles below the city of Mobile. This fort had a garrison of 
about 1,700 under command of General Randall Gibson. Canby conducted 
a siege against Spanish Fort until April 8, when, getting a portion of his 
forces between the fort and Mobile, he threatened the rear of the Gray's 
position and compelled Gibson to retire to Mobile. 

During the siege of Spanish Fort, a portion of Canby's forces under 
General Steel left Pensacola to join him. On March 31, Steel defeated a 
small body of Gray cavalry at Pine Barren Creek under Clauton. Steel 
then occupied the town of Pollard, and, pushing on, began a siege of General 
St. John Liddell's forces of 2,500 at Blakely. 

Very little progress was made against Liddell until after the fall of 
Spanish Fort, when Canby, despatching 25,000 troops to assist Steel, the little 
garrison of Blakely, after a heroic defense, was soon overpowered and 
gave up. 

The loss of Blakely determined General Maury to evacuate Mobile, as 
his force was now reduced to 5,000. Besides, he wished to spare that city 
with its population of 30,000 non-combatants the terrors of a siege. On the 
morning of April 10, the day after the surrender of General Lee to 
Grant, he began preparations to move out of the city. Turning the stores 
of the commissary department over to the mayor, for the use of the people, 
and directing General Gibson to burn up the cotton, he left the city on 
April 12. The mayor was ordered to raise the white flag at 2 p. m., when 
Canby's forces marched unmolested into Mobile and raised the Stars and 
Stripes. 



THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 215 

Pollard says: "During the progress of the evacuation of Mobile, the 
little isolated garrisons of Tracy and Huger under command of Colonel 
Patton restrained and returned with great effect the heavy fire of the enemy's 
batteries on the easterly shore of the Appalachie River, and here was fired the 
last cannon for the Confederate War." 

As instructed by General Grant, Thomas, on March 22, despatched an 
expedition of 12,000 cavalry under General Wilson. This demonstration was 
intended against Tuscaloosa and Selma, while Canby was operating against 
Mobile and Central Alabama. 

The meagre forces of Grays to oppose such a formidable command as 
that approaching under Wilson, were scattered about the country. Forrest 
commanded at West Point, about 150 miles southwest of Eastport at the 
head of navigation of the Tennessee River from which place Wilson 
started. Another small force of Grays occupied Monterallo, over 150 miles 
southeast, under General Roddy. 

Wilson, advancing by diverging columns, forced the scattered Grays to 
rally to the support of Columbus, Tuscaloosa and Selma. Wilson's full force 
reached Selma on April 2, after an encounter with Forrest's small force at 
Ebenezer Church. 

The defensive works about Selma, some four miles in extent, were 
manned by a force of Grays of but 3,000 poorly equipped troops, and, 
after an obstinate fight put up by General Buford, the Blues charged in 
force and captured the place, and in doing so, gained one of the Grays' best 
depots of supplies. 

Wilson destroyed all the arsenals, foundries and stores and soon got 
in communication with Canby. He then moved towards Montgomery, Ga., 
aiming to get into North Carolina. Destroying everything of military value 
as he advanced, he finally entered Montgomery on April 12. From here, one 
of his columns marched on to Columbus, and another on West Point, both 
places being assaulted and captured on the 16th. The small garrison of 
300 at West Point under General R. C. Taylor, fought desperately until 
their commander fell dead with sword in hand. Pollard says: "The Con- 
federate flag was never hauled down by the Federals, nor any white flag 
hoisted until the enemy had leaped the parapet." 

Wilson's force reached Macon, Ga., on the 21st, which was defended 
by a small force of Grays under General Howell Cobb. Cobb, having 
received from General Beauregard the day before Wilson's arrival, the news 
of the surrender of Johnston to Sherman, immediately surrendered, of which 
we will read. 

The devastation of property by Wilson throughout Alabama and Georgia 
left the Confederacy east of the Mississippi River in a state of collapse. 

On May 4, General Dick Taylor surrendered the Department of Alabama, 
Mississippi and East Louisiana to General Canby under the same terms ac- 
corded to Lee by Grant. 

We will now go back to Savannah where we left Sherman preparing for 
his advance North. 

While Sherman's Army of well-trained and inured veterans lay at 
Savannah, two modes of joining that force with Grant's Army of the 
Potomac before Petersburg were carefully considered. 

The Administration, and even Grant, inclined to the plan of trans- 
porting these forces north quickly by sea, but Sherman insisted that a 



216 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 

march through the Carolinas should be made by his army, as by so doing 
these regions, which had so far escaped the ravages of war, would feel the 
sting without which no enduring peace could be counted upon. Then, too, 
South Carolina, the birthplace of secession, was still defended by Johnston's 
army. 

Again, should Lee succeed in escaping Grant from Richmond, he could 
join with Johnston and thus almost interminably prolong the war. Sherman 
argued that, in spite of the hard winter season, his veterans would be 
able to overcome the numerous difficulties to be met. 

After considerable correspondence on the subject, Grant finally agreed 
with Sherman's plan to march direct for Goldsboro, N. C, and there be 
joined by Schofield's 23rd Corps, which had been brought east from Thomas in 
Nashville, for the capture of Fort Fisher and Wilmington. This junction, 
it was expected by Sherman, could be made in the latter part of March. 

When Sherman received orders to proceed, he wrote Grant: "I am 
gratified that you have modified your former orders, as I feared the trans- 
portation by sea would very much disturb the unity and morale of my army, 
now so perfect." To Halleck he expressed delight, that he preferred to go 
to Wilmington rather than to Charleston, "the former being a live place, 
the latter dead and unimportant when its railroad communications were 
broken by my march." Draper says: "From the moment Sherman passed 
the capital of South Carolina the Confederacy was ended. All after that 
was simply the necessary consequences of what had already been done." 

Early in January, 1865, Grant sent troops, under the command of General 
Forster, to garrison Savannah, leaving the Sherman Army of the West, 
numbering 60,000, to proceed on its march northward. 

Colonel Poe, Chief of Engineers, in selecting the route, planned to 
follow the dividing line between the clayey uplands and the sandy low 
country. The streams and rivers through the Carolinas flow nearly east- 
ward to the sea, and consequently, at right angles to the line of march. 
This entailed the laborious construction of many bridges and many miles of 
causeways. At the end Colonel Poe reported that, during the months of 
January, February and March, over four hundred miles of corduroying roads 
had been done, the right wing had built fifteen pontoon bridges having an 
aggregate length of 3,720 feet; the left wing had built 4,000 feet, being a 
total of one and one-half miles, besides a great amount of trestlework. 

At the time of making preparation for the northerly movement, Howard, 
with the right wing, was at Pocataligo, northeast of Savannah on the 
Charleston and Savannah Railroad, almost directly west of Charleston, S. C. 
This post, which had been taken after a sharp fight, made an excellent base, 
as supplies could be gotten there at Hilton Head on the coast. 

The start of the left wing under Slocum, with the cavalry under Kil- 
patrick, took place on January 15, through the immense rice fields, morasses 
and slimy lakes of mud. The whole army had been unhampered of all heavy 
baggage, and only thirty days' supplies taken along, as it was intended that 
it should subsist on the country. 

Scarcely was Slocum in motion when his wing was embarrassed by 
very heavy rains. Some of the columns were almost submerged in the rice 
fields of the Savannah and it was not until the first week of February that 
he succeeded in crossing this river, then swollen by the heavy rains to a 
width of three miles. His advance was now west and nearly abreast of 



THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 217 

Howard's right wing at Pocataligo, which, however, had started a few days 
before, a portion moving as a feint on Charleston, compelling General 
Hardee to retain considerable force there to await the anticipated attack 
on the capital city. 

The next river which had to be crossed was the Salkehatchie. 

In the meantime, on February 3, Howard's wing came up against some 
entrenched Grays at Midway on the South Carolina railroad, and in the 
assault, had to pass across a swamp three miles wide, with water varying 
from knee to shoulder in depth. The weather was bitter cold; the rain 
falling in torrents, and the wind coming in boisterous gusts. 

The Grays retreated before Howard's overpowering numbers to Branch- 
ville on the next intervening river, the Edisto. On the extreme left, Kil- 
patrick was fighting Wheeler's cavalry of Grays in his forward move on 
Augusta. 

The march proceeded under the most exasperating circumstances. The 
streams were so swollen that the forests of water-oak which lined both banks 
of the rivers were submerged. The rain fell in such torrents as to blind both 
horses and riders. 

"We must all turn amphibious," wrote Sherman to Slocum, "for the 
country is half under water." Mower had to fight at Salkehatchie with his 
men up to their arm-pits, he himself setting the example. 

By February 11, the whole army was on the South Carolina railroad 
from Midway west to Blackville. Of the Grays, Hardee, with 14,000, was 
at Charleston; D. H. Hill and G. W. Smith were at Augusta. 

Sherman pushed on towards Columbia. At Orangeburg Bridge, the 
Grays were driven across the bridge, and the 17th Corps crossed the Edisto 
on February 12. The branch railroad which connected Columbia with the 
South Carolina railroad was destroyed as far north as Lewisville. 

On the 14th, the Grays were forced across the Congaree River, where 
they abandoned a small fort. Prom this on, all Sherman's forces were 
turned toward Columbia. The Grays, in their retreat, burned the bridge over 
the Congaree which flows in front of Columbia, and, while the Blues were 
waiting for the pontoons to come up, they could see the people in the 
town running about the streets, carrying away corn and meal which Sher- 
man's troops would need, but a few shots scattered them. 

Of this part of the march. Draper says: "From beyond the Edisto, the 
four great columns of the National Army were coming. They presented a 
front of more than fifty miles. Crowds of cavalry, foragers and bummers 
were hovering on their flanks. 

A black smoke, rising to the skies, marked the track on which the 
avenger was approaching. For many miles, the pine woods were on fire. 
Devastation stalked in front of the invading host. It was surrounded by 
flames, ashes were in its rear." 

On the 17th of February, the mayor of Columbia surrendered the 
city. Sherman's orders were to destroy all public property not needed for 
use to the National forces, but to spare dwellings, colleges, schools and 
asylums. General Wade Hampton, who commanded the Grays' rear guard, 
ordered that all cotton should be moved into the streets and burned, to 
prevent it from falling into Sherman's hands. These fires were partially 
extinguished by the Blues, but the high winds, communicating the flames and 
flying embers of burning cotton to the wooden buildings, the beautiful city of 



218 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 

Columbia was by 4 p. m. in ashes, in spite of strenuous efforts on the part 
of Sherman's men to control the conflagration. 

Eggleston, the Southern historian, in his excellent "History of the Con- 
federate War," says of the destruction of Columbia: "It was in South Caro- 
lina, of which Columbia is the capital, that secession had been born. It was 
here that South Carolina had proclaimed her withdrawal from the Union and 
her independent sovereignity. It was here that the war which had cost so 
much life and treasure and sacrifice and suffering had been born. There 
was, naturally, among the now victorious men of Sherman's command, 
especial vengeful feeling towards South Carolina, and still more against its 
capital city. 

"The cotton stored in that city was brought out and piled in the middle 
of the broad streets. Presently, it was fired by some agency. The fire 
spread to the buildings of the town and the greater part of the beautiful 
city was burned. 

The Confederates have always insisted that Columbia was wantonly 
burned by General Sherman's order. General Sherman always denied the 
charge. The controversy over that point in newspapers, pamphlets and 
books has filled space enough in print to constitute a library. Let us 
leave the matter here as one of the calamities of war the question of 
responsibility for which is so hopelessly involved in a mass of conflicting 
testimony that no historian mindful of fairness can feel himself safe in 
passing judgment with respect to it. 

"Columbia has been rebuilt in all its beauty. The country in whose 
crown it is a jewel, has grown to be the greatest and finest on earth. Surely 
we can leave the dead past to bury its dead, so far as such matters as this 
are concerned." 

On the day following the surrender of Columbia, Charleston, too, 
fell, Hardee being obliged to evacuate in order to avoid being besieged 
there. He moved his 14,000 Grays by railroad and joined the main army 
with Johnston on the border of North Carolina at Cheraw. 

In leaving Charleston. Hardee ordered every building containing cotton 
to be fired. In vain the citizens endeavored to protect their buildings, but 
the flames shot out in every direction, carrying with them complete destruc- 
tion. At one time, a powder magazine exploded and destroyed two hundred 
people. 

For several days Sherman's march to Cheraw was greatly impeded by 
heavy rains, and it was not until March 8 that his forces crossed into North 
Carolina. They pushed on now northeastward direct for Goldsboro, and on 
the 11th reached Fayetteville, about midway of their destination. 

A mishap occurred about this time near Pedee to the west of Fayette- 
ville, when Wade Hampton surprised and captured one of Kilpatrick's 
brigades, which, however, the Union general afterwards succeeded in re- 
covering, with the exception of a few prisoners. 

Sherman could now choose between Charlotte, far to the west, or 
Wilmington, to the southeast, as his objective point. Turning the one and 
marching on the other, he forced the Grays to choose between Charlotte or 
Goldsboro, as their forces were too weak to defend both far-separated places. 

During the 12th, 13th and 14th, Sherman's army rested at Fayette- 
ville, an important town of 5,000 population at the tide limit of Cape Fear 
River, 55 miles due south of Raleigh. He had over 60,000 troops and a 



THE CAMPAIGNS OF T HE CIVIL WAR 219 

motley caravan of 4,000 animals, 3,000 wagons, 25,000 non-combatants, 
mostly negroes, women and children. 

Johnston, whom Lee now put in command of all the Grays under 
Hardee, Cheatham, Smith and Beauregard, was, on the 12th, with part 
of these forces at Charlotte, awaiting the arrival of the remnant of Hood's 
defeated Army of the Tennessee. Sherman now ordered the forces then on 
the Atlantic Coast under Schofield to gather at Goldsboro, while he made a 
feint move on Raleigh, which lay northwest of Goldsboro, on the North 
Carolina railroad. 

At Averysboro, just north of Fayetteville on the Cape Fear River, Slo- 
cum's wing encountered a portion of Hardee's command left in the neigh- 
borhood in the hope of checking Sherman's advance long enough to allow 
Johnston, with the main arniy of the Grays to concentrate at Raleigh, 
Smithfield or Goldsboro. The battle at Averysboro began in the afternoon; 
early the next morning the inferior force of Greys retired, leaving over one 
hundred dead on the field. Sending a division to make a show of pursuit, 
Slocum aimed at Goldsboro. At a short distance east of Averysboro, he ran 
up against a strong force under Stewart, Cheatham, Hardee and Wade 
Hampton's cavalry, in all some 24,000, with Johnston in command, intending 
to overwhelm Sherman's left wing. 

The following Southern interesting account of the Battle of Benton- 
ville, N. C, is taken from Pollard's "Lost Cause": "At daybreak of the 18th, 
a report was received from General Hampton that the Federal Army was 
moving on Goldsboro in two columns; the 15th and 17th Corps on the direct 
road from Fayetteville to that place and the 14th and 20th on that from 
Averysboro. The roads taken by these two columns were twelve miles 
apart. On the evening of the 18th, Bragg's and Stewart's troops reached 
the ground, but Hardee was unable to do so, not arriving until the morning 
of the 19th. In the meantime, the enemy came up and attacked Hoke's 
division, which was to the left of Stewart's Corps. The attack was so 
vigorous that General Bragg called for aid, and McLaw's division, then 
arriving, was sent to him. The other, Taliaferro's, was placed on Stewart's 
right. Before these troops got into position, the attack on the left had been 
repulsed, as well as a subsequent one upon Loring's division." 

An attack by the Blues across the open fields was then made along the 
whole line, when the 14th Corps on the right was driven back at least 
a mile and a half into a dense thicket, and the left was soon stopped in a 
very thick woods by entrenchments. The fight began at 3 o'clock and con- 
tinued until dark. Wheeler's cavalry was to have fallen upon the rear of 
the Federal left, but a swollen creak which intervened kept it out of action. 
After burying the dead as far as practicable at night, and removing his 
wounded, and many of those of the enemy. General Johnston resumed his 
first position. Although the battle of Bentonville had failed in Johnston's 
purpose to cripple Sherman before he could effect a junction with Schofield, 
it had been a most creditable affair for the Confederates, for, with but 
14,000, they fought 40,000, composed of the 14th and 20th Corps and Kil- 
patrick's cavalry." The next day, partial attacks by the Blues were repulsed. 

On the 21st, the 17th Corps penetrated the thin line of cavalry which 
formed the Confederate left and almost reached a bridge in rear of the 
centre, over which lay the only road left to Johnston. The next day, 
Johnston retired northwest towards Smithfield. His loss in the three days' 



220 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL. WAR 

fighting was 224 killed, 1,500 wounded and many prisoners. Sherman re- 
ported his loss on these sanguinary affartrs at nearly 1,700. 

On the 24th of March, Sherman joined Schofleld at Goldsboro, when 
the Blues then had an army of 100,000 within 150 miles of Virginia. It 
was the intention to have these forces march on the line of the Roanoke 
River, and thence by the Richmond and Danville road to Petersburg. 
However, the fate of Richmond was decided without any participation of 
Sherman in the catastrophe. 

Sherman put his weary forces into camp for a much-needed rest, after 
its agonizing march of 400 miles and almost daily fighting. In a short 
time, every man was supplied with an entire new suit of clothes. 

Meeting of Lincoln, Grant and Sherman. On March 27, Sherman, leav- 
ing Schofleld in command at Goldsboro, visited General Grant at City Point, 
on the same day that General Sheridan arrived at Grant's headquarters after 
his long raid from the Shenandoah Valley to the James River. Here the 
three great captains met. Sherman says in his Memoirs that he and General 
Grant called upon President Lincoln, then on the steamer Queen lying near 
a dock at City Point. Within a few days, two important meetings were had 
between the three. 

These great historical events are graphically recited with much detail by 
General Sherman in his Memoirs, Volume II, Page 324. Plans for the future 
movement of the armies were gone over with great care, Lincoln's strongest 
desire being to avoid, if possible, the shedding of any more blood. But, 
then, when the subject was broached as to the disposition of the Confederate 
President, Davis, after his capture, Lincoln told a story which intimated that 
he hoped for Davis' escape "unbeknownst to him." 

Sherman's closing words, in speaking of the character of Lincoln, are: 
"I know when I left him, that I was more than ever impressed by his 
kindly nature, his deep and earnest sympathy, with affection for the whole 
people, resulting from the war, and by the march of hostile armies through 
the South; and that his earnest desire seemed to be to end the war speedily 
without more bloodshed or devastation, and to restore all the men of both 
sections to their homes." 

These noble sentiments, Lincoln had expressed during his second in- 
augural in his well known maxim, "Charity to all, malice toward none." 

On April 15, six days after the surrender of Lee to Grant, General 
Joseph E. Johnston sent a letter to Sherman, who was then with his army 
advancing on Raleigh, N. C, asking for an interview. Johnston's forces 
were stretched along their line of twenty-seven miles between Hillsboro 
and Durham Station. 

Sherman called upon Johnston at Durham Station, where both had a 
very cordial meeting. The day before Sherman had received a personal 
dispatch from Grant telling of the assassination of President Lincoln. Realiz- 
ing that by giving the news out to his army, it would in all probability, create 
feelings of vengeance among the troops, and that direful acts might follow 
he decided to withhold the sad information. He did, however, inform 
General Johnston of the assassination, and of his holding back the news of 
it from his command. John.ston was deeply moved at the terrible tragedy. 

Johnston, in suggesting arrangements for surrender of his army, had 
the intent of procuring, if possible, better terms than those granted to Lee 
by Grant, and proposed that the capitulation of the troops under his im- 



THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL. WAR 221 

mediate command should constitute a universal surrender of the remaining 
Confederate armies, but requested delay, in order to confer with President 
Davis. Both generals saw clearly that such proposed terms were entirely 
beyond their province as military commanders; that they involved terms of 
Peace, which would be granted only by Congress. At another meeting be- 
tween them, Johnston, not having been able to reach Davis, brought ex- 
Vice-President John C. Breckinridge, intimating that Davis was a fugitive 
on his way to Europe, and that his troops would obey Breckinridge. Sherman 
not only refused to recognize Breckinridge, but would only allow him to 
be present at the interview in the capacity of Major-General. A very long 
memorandum was finally signed for submission to the Government at "Wash- 
ington, which included virtually all that Johnston had requested. The re- 
ceipt of this memorandum at Washington raised a howl of disgust and 
denunciation of Sherman for even considering such proposals, the officers 
of the Administration taxing him for going beyond his authority, while 
some newspapers even called him a traitor. Grant was finally sent to 
North Carolina to inform Johnston that he and his men could receive only 
the same terms as were accepted by Lee. On his arrival at Sherman's 
headquarters. Grant remained in the background, while Sherman informed 
Johnston of the Government's instructions, whereupon, the surrender took 
place on May 14, 1865. This completed the surrender of all the Confederate 
forces east of the Mississippi. 

Of Sherman, Lieutenant-Colonel Dodge, in his "Birds-eye View of the 
Civil War," says, : "Sherman's active field work ends here. What has been 
said about his Atlanta Campaign sufficiently stamps the man and the soldier. 
No praise can add to, no blame detract from Sherman's splendid reputation 
and services. He, if anyone, showed during the Civil War the divine military 
spark. In his 1864 Campaign, he was pitted against the strongest of the 
Confederates, always excepting Lee, and he wrote his own strength upon 
every page of its history. It would have furnished an interesting story to 
have seen him at the head of the splendid force (commanded by Grant) 
which started from the Rappahannock, when he, himself, started from Chat- 
tanooga. For Sherman's work never taxed him beyond his powers. It is 
difficult to say what he still held in reserve." 

There now remained but that portion of the South west of the Mississippi 
River under command of General Kirby Smith. At Shreveport, La., he 
declared to his troop, that, if they held out, they would receive the aid of 
those nations who were in sympathy with the cause, but when the news 
came that a large force of Blues under Sheridan was being put in motion for 
Texas, Smith finally gave up and surrendered to Canby on May 26. 

Pollard says here: "With the surrender of Smith, the war was ended 
and from the Potomac to the Rio Grande, there was no longer an armed 
soldier to resist the authority of the United States." 

Draper says: "The last conflict of the war was on May 27, 1865, on the 
Rio Grande, near Brazos, Santiago, Texas, when a small expedition of 
Blues had set out to surprise a Confederate camp, succeeded in doing so; but 
on its return was overtaken by a larger force, and routed with a loss of 
80 men," and so history has to record the final fight as won by the Grays. 

Early in May, 18 65, or about a month after the surrender of Lee, 
President Andrew Johnson, who had succeeded Lincoln, ordered the dis- 



THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL. WAR 



lianding of all the National forces, except those necessary to maintain order 
in the Southern States. 

The Government bent every effort to pay off quickly and transport to 
their homes the 1,034,064 soldiers then on the rolls. Never in the history 
of the world had such a tiask been accomplished with such speed and quiet- 
ness, for in Europe at the termination of a war, the great problem that 
always stared the governments in the face was what to do with their idle 
soldiers. There was no such difficulty in our case. At the same time, it re- 
flects great honor on our form of government that the feat was accomplished 
with so much celerity. It was the anxiety that every soldier had to return 
home and get back to civil pursuits that made the feat so easy. By Jan- 
uary 1, 1866, all, except 12,000 retained for purposes of order, had been 
paid off and transported to their homes. The Government sold its immense 
accumulation of war stores at fair prices and at an expense of but less than 
one per cent. 

Sherman says in his Memoirs that, after General Johnston surrendered 
to him his army of 36,817 men, he made preparations to march his army 
to Washington. On April 18, he started. On May 7, the Western veterans 
passed very close to Petersburg, then they marched through Richmond, and 
so Sherman's men enjoyed the satisfaction of entering the famous Con- 
federate capital city, which honor had been denied the Army of the Potomac 
— those gallant forces which had for four years been fighting for its capture. 

In marching through Virginia, Sherman says he deployed his army into 
three columns, and the three routes were so arranged that his inen were 
enabled to pass over the sites of the great battles fought during the four 
years in that State. 

Ultimately, the Armies of the Potomac and that of Sherman assembled 
near Washington, where a grand parade was made by these veterans before 
the President and foreign ambassadors prior to their discharge. The city 
was crowded by joyous citizens from every Northern State, who came to 
greet their soldier boys and take them home. May 23 was given to the 
Army of the Potomac, and the next day, Sherman's men took their turn. 
Each army required six hours to pass the reviewing stand. 

As the troops passed the long Treasury Building, they read with much 
pride the following motto emblazoned on a cloth stretching along the whole 
length of the building, "The Republic owes a debt to the soldiers which it 
never can repay." 

The number of troops of the two armies that took part in the grand 
review was nearly 150,000. Sherman in his Memoirs, says: "The morning 
of the 24th was extremely beautiful. The streets were filled with people 
to see the pageant, armed with bouquets of flowers for their favorite regiments 
and everything was propitious. As we reached the Presidential ground, 
we left our horses with orderlies and went upon the reviewing stand, where 
I found Mrs. Sherman with her father and son. I then took my post on 
the left of the President and for six and a half hours stood while the Army 
passed in the order of the 15th, 17th, 20th and 14th Corps. 

It was, in my judgment, the most magnificent army in existence — 65,000 
men, in splendid physique, who had just completed a march of nearly 2,000 
miles in a hostile country, in good drill and who realized that they were 
being closely scrutinized by thousands of their fellow countrymen and by 



THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR 223 

foreigners. The steadiness of the tread — the uniform intervals — all eyes to 
the front, and the tattered and bullet-riven flags festooned with flowers, 
all attracted universal notice. Many good people up to this time had looked 
upon our Western Army as a sort of mob, but the world then saw and 
recognized the fact that it was an army in the proper sense, well-organized, 
well-commanded and disciplined, and there was no wonder that it had swept 
through the South like a tornado. Some little scenes enlivened the day, and 
called for the laughter and cheers of the crowd. Each division was followed 
by six ambulances, as representative of its baggage train. Some of the 
division commanders had added, by way of variety, goats, milch-cows and 
pack mules, whose loads consisted of game-cocks, poultry, hams, etc., and 
some of them had the families of freed slaves along, with the women leading 
their children. Each division was preceded by its corps of black pioneers, 
armed with picks and spades. These marched abreast in double ranks, keep- 
ing perfect dress and step, and added much to the interest of the occasion. 
On the whole the grand review was a splendid success, and was a fltting 
conclusion to the campaigns and the war." 

Most of the historians of the Civil War have expatiated upon the 
results to the American people of the vast struggle, but the following, by the 
Southern historian, Eggleston, written long after the war, is among the best: 

"Measured by its enduring consequences, the superior magnitude of our 
war (over other modern European wars), in its influence upon National 
and human destinies is still more conspicious. 

"It made an end of huma.n slavery in the last civilized country on earth 
in which slavery was permitted. 

"It freed the nation from a reproach that sorely affected its citizens. 

"It ended a political conflict which had threatened the very foundations 
of the Republic from the hour of its institution. In brief the political and 
social revolution wrought by the war is matched and over-matched by the 
stupendous economic revolution produced, a revolution whose reward to 
industry, to capital and to enterprise are such as the wildest visionary would 
have laughed at as a futile dream, when the South lay stripped and stricken 
and staggering under its burden of perplexities at the end of the struggle 
which had taxed its material resources to the point of exhaustion and which 
had well-nigh exterminated its vigorous young manhood. 

"The great actors in the drama have all passed away. The passions of 
war are completely gone. Even in politics, war prejudices no longer play 
a part worth considering. The time seems fully come when one may write 
truth with regard to the war with the certainty of awaiting welcome for 
his words. 

"The time has come, which General Grant foresaw in 18G5, when he 
predicted that the superb strategy and unconquerable endurance of Lee and 
the brilliant military play of Sherman, the splendid prowess of Stonewall 
Jackson, and the picturesque achievements of Phil Sheridan, the extra- 
ordinary dash and enterprise of J. E. B. Stuart, on the one side and of Custer 
on the other, would all be reckoned a common possession in the .storehouse 
of American memory, a subject of pride and satisfaction wherever there 
might be an American to glory m the deeds of his countrymen." 

And further, the Northern historian. Dodge, says: "No race can harbor 
a more just pride in its achievements than the American Anglo-Saxon may 
do in the splendid resistance of the South. Happy our Northern homes 
that we were not called upon to endure to such a bitter end!" 

[THE END.] 



INDEX 



A')iiigton Ferry 144 

AboliMonist !l, 10, 11 

Acworth, Ga 140 

Adam 150 

Adjutant-G.'n. report, 1885 20 

African Slave Trade 10 

Alabama 11 

Alabama Claims 7 9 

Alabama, ship 154 

Albemarle Sound 40 

Albatross 8 6 

Alexandria, La 89, 127, 130 

Allatoona Pass, Ga 140, 14*8 

Allen, Col. C 90, 98 

Amelia Court House, Va 207 

Ainerican Republic 25 

Anderson, Major 16, 27 

Anderson, Gen 36, 104. 176, 191 

Ande-rsonville, Ga 145 

Annapolis, Md 2 6 

Annapolis, Md 27 

Antietam Campaign (Lee's) 73 

Appomatiox River 181 

Aquia Creek, Va. . 66 

Archer, Gen 107 

Arlingion Ceinetery, Va 199 

Aikansas 12, 16 

Arkansas I ass 9 9 

Arkansas Ram 60 

Armestead, Gen 109 

Armstead 110 

Arnold, Capt. R 88 

Army of the Cumberland. .7 8, 114, 118 

Army of the Gulf 61, 78 

Army Northern Va 22.t78 

Army of the Ohio 78, 136, 148 

Army of the Potomac. .63, 78, 101. 105 
Army of Tennessee. . .78, 118, 130, 137 

Army of the Gulf 78 

Army of Virginia 69 

Army of Southwest 22 

Army of Cumberland 137 

Army of Miss 48 

Ashley, G3n 69 

A'chafalya River. La 133 

Atlanta, Ga 138, 143, 161 

A'.lantic Cable 2 6 

Auger, C. C 87 

Averell 173 

Averysboro, X. C 219 

Avoyelle Prairie, La 132 



B 

Baker, Col. K. D 33 

Bailey. lA-Col. Dam. 123,130,131,133 

Baldwin 83 

Baltimore. Md 2 6 

Ball's Bluff 33 

Banks. Gen. X. P 31, 63, 67, 78, 

80. i)6. 99, 126, 129, 134 

Barnes, Albert 96, 98 

Barringer, Gen 175 

Bates 144, 152 

3a' on Rouge, La 58, 87 

3ayou Ramos, La 9 5 

Bayard, James 25 

Bayou, La., Fourche 96 

Bayou Sara 89 

Bealton, Va Ill 

Beaufort, X. C 41 

Beauregard, Gen. P. G. T 18, 31, 

41, 50, 59. 80 

Bee 128 

Bee. gunboat 128 

Boll, John 15 

Belmont, Mo 36 

Ben, gunboat 99 

Bentonville, X. C 219 

Benjamin, J. P 60 

Bermuda 22, 172 

Big Bethel, Va. . 80, 82 

Birge 192, 196 

Birney, Gen 103 

Berril, Col 87 

Bisland, La 88 

Blair 83 

Blaney. J. Y 97, 98 

Blockade 25, 39, 79 

Blockade Runners Ill 

Bloody Salient 171 

Booneville. Mo 28 

Booth, Maj 124 

Border States 16, 34 

Border RufRans 13 

Bov/ling Green, Ky 36, 47, 49, 81 

B-adford, Maj 124 

Bradford, Maj 124 

Bradley, Capt 159 

Bragg, Braxton 22, 52, 54, 78, 

114, 118, 122, 144, 219 

Brandy Station 105, 111 

Brashear City, La 95 

Brazos Santiago, Tex 99 

Breach loading guns 163 

Breckinridge, John C 13, 54. 60, 

116, 120, 173, 203, 212. 221 
Bridgeport, Ga 119 



Bright, John 25 

Bristol Ill 

Broolclyn, frigate 156 

Brown, Gov., Ga 147 

Brown's Gap, Va 151. 193 

Brown, John 14 

Brownsville, Tex 9 9 

Buchanan, Jas 13, 16 

Buchanan, Franklin 42 

Buchannan, Ad 156 

Buchanan, McKean 42 

Buckland Mills. Va Ill 

Buckner. Gen. S. E 27, 36, 48, 

78, 114, 121 

Bruinsburg', Miss 81 

Brunswick, Fla 40 

Buell, Gen. D. C. . .34, 37, 46, 48, 50, 53 

Buford, Gen l07 

Bull Run, Va 31 

Burnside, Gen. A. E 40, 70, 76, 

114, 119, 121, 165, 174, 178 

Bushrod 205 

Butler, Gen. B. F 34, 39, 46, 57. 

61, 86, 126, 157, 180 
Buzzard Roost Gap 138 

C. 

Caine River 130 

Calhoun 138 

Calhoun, Ga 145 

California 12 

Camden 134 

Cameron, Simon 45 

Canby, E. R. S... 46, 123, 134, 

153, 214, 221 

Carlisle, Pa 105 

Carolton, La 61 

Carnifex Ferry, W. Va 29 

Carolina's Campaign 216 

Cassville, Ga 138 

Casualties 177 

Cedar Creek, Va 195, 198 

Cedar Mountains, Va 70 

Cemetery Ridge, Pa 106 

Censorious Press 80 

Chalmer 152 

Chambersburg, Pa 75, 105 

Champion Hill 82 

Chancellorsville, Va 101 

Chantilly, Va 72 

Charleston, S. C 16, 112, 217 

Chattanooga, Tenn. . .52, 117, 120, 151 

Cheat Mountains 29 

Chatham 116, 120, 151 

Cherbourg, Foance 154 

Cherokee Indians 47 

Chesapeake Bay. Va 21 

Chickenny, Col., 13lh Corp — 

Washburn 89, 98 

Chickahommy River, Va 64 



Chickamauga, Ga 115 

Chickasaw Ship 157 

Chittenden, Major N. H 59 

Cincinnati, O 27, 115 

Cinoinnati Monitor 44 

City Point, Va 179 

Civil War 13 

Civil War, Cost of 20 

Civil War, Losses 20 

Clanton 214 

Clay, Henry 12 

Clay, Compromise 12 

Clebourne, Gen. .54, 116, 120, 140, 150 

Clifton, G. B 88 

Clinton, Miss 82 

Colombus, S. C 217 

Cob, T 215 

Cold Harbor, Va 66, 176 

Collins. Cap N 155 

Columbus, 35, 115 

Confederate Deserters 204 

Confiscation of Slaves- 34 

Confederate States of America .... 17 

Congress — Frigate 4 2 

Conscription, North 105 

Conscription, Southern 70 

Conda 157 

The Constitution 11 

Cook 126 

Coosauhatchie, N. C 113 

Corinlh, Miss 50, 53 

Corpus Christl, Tex 60 

Couch 101, 104 

Crampton, Md 74 

Crimean War 2 7 

Crandolet Gunboat 60 

Craney Island 43 

Cotton Speculation 133 

Cox. Gen. J. D 20 

Cox's Plantation, La 9 6 

Crook 165, 173, 192 

Cross, G3n 148 

Cross Lanes. W. Va 29 

Culpeper Court House, Va 70 

Cumberland Gap, Tenn 114 

Cumberland River 47 

Cumberland Sloop of War 42 

Curtis, B. R 14. 47, 52, 135 

Custer 108. 197, 208 

Cutshow 191 



D. 



Dahlgren. Admiral 112 

Dallas, Ga 140 

Dalton, Ga 148 

Dam of Bailey, La 130 

Danels 168 



Daui)hin, Ala 155 

Davis, Com. C. H 60 

Davis, Grn 53, 197 

Davis, Jefferson.. 9, 13, 17, 24, 58, 61, 
106, 122, 137, 144. 147, 189, 196, 221 

Dayton, Wm. L 13 

Decatur, Miss 153 

Deep Bottom, Va 183, 188 

Delaware 16, 27 

Democ:a:ic Convention, 1856 13 

Drmocra'ic Convention, 1860 15 

De So.o, Miss 59 

Dewey, Admiral 90 

Diana, Gunboat 88 

Dimopolis, Mi.ss 122 

Disbandment of Army 222 

Divine, Col 33 

Dodge, Col 20 

Dodge, Gen 119 

Donaldsonville, La 96 

Donelson, Tenn 48 

Donelson, A. J 13 

Doubleday, A 107 

Douglas, S. A 12, 15, 25 

Dowling 9 9 

Dowling. R. W 99 

Drury 172 

Dudley 96 

Duglas, D. A 12 

Dupont, Capt. S. F 40, 112 

Dutch Gap Canal, Va 184 

Dwight 195 

E. 

Early. .. .102, 104, 174, 185, 187, 188 
193, 195, 201 

Eastport, Tenn 119, 130 

Edwards Perry, Va 313 

Eggleston, G. C 12 

Eighty-first New Hampshire 93 

Electric Spark 154 

Elizabeth, N. C 41 

Ellsworth, Col. Elmer 31 

Elliot, Maj 113 

Elks Horn 47 

Emancipating Slaves l)y Generals.. 34 

Emancipation 10, 75 

Emmerson, Dr 13 

Emory 87, 96, 128, 180 

England 10, 25 

Ericson, Cap. John 42 

Ericson, Frigate 155 

Evans 197 

Everett, Edward 15 

Ewell, R. S..68, 105, 107. 145, 167, 168 

F. 

Fagan, Gen 134 

Fair Oaks, Va 64 



Falmouth, Va 101 

Farney 83 

Farmville, Va 208 

Farragut, D. G 18, 57, 60, 87, 

134, 155, 156 

Fay Ferry 138 

FayetteVille, N. C 218 

Fernandino, Fla 40 

Fifteenth Army Corps 79 

Fillmore, Milliard 13, 15 

Fisher's Hill 191, 193 

Five Forks 206 

Florida, Pri 154 

Florida 12 

Floyd, J. B 17, 29, 48 

Folly Island. S. C 112 

Foley, Frank 97, 197, 199 

Foote, Admiral 40, 48 

Foreigners, North 122 

Forrest, N. B 48, 115, 123, 125, 

148, 151, 153 

Franklin, W. V 68 

Franklin, La 89 

Franklin, Tenn.. 77, 127, 149 

Franklin, Gen 76, 127 

France 2 5 

Frazier, Gen. I. W 114 

Frazier, I. W 114 

Fremont, John C 13, 33, 67 

Freedman's Bureau 54 

Free and Slave States 9, 11 

Free Statesmen 13 

Free Soil Party 13 

French in Mexico 79 

French, Dr., in La 130 

French, Gen 66, 104, 148 

Fridericksburg, Va 7 6, 101 

Frederick, Md 73, 185 

Fort Alexander, Va 207 

Fort Beauregard, S. C 40 

Fort De Russy, La 88, 127, 131 

Fort Donelson, Ky 47 

Fort Gregg, Va 207 

P"'ort Steadman, Va 204 

Fort Fisher, N. C 157 

Fort Griffin, Tex 9 9 

Fort Gibson, Miss 81 

Fort Garves, Ala 157 

Fort Harrison, Va 183 

Fort Henry, Ky 47 

Fort Hinman, Ark 55 

Fort Jackson, La 5 7 

Fort McAllister 164 

Fort Macon, N. C 44 

Fort Morgan, Ala 155 

Fortress Monroe 34 

Fort Pemberton, Miss 79 

Fort Phillip, La 57 



Fort Pillow, Tenn 49, 123, 157 

Fort Pulaski, Ga 40 

Fort Sanders, Tenn 121 

Fort Scott, Ark 125, 135 

Fort Steadman, Va 204 

Fort Stevens 186 

Fort Sumter 113 

Fort Wagner, S. C 112 

Fort Walker 40 

Front Royal 68 

rost. Gen. D. M 27 

Fugitive Slaves 12, 54 

G. 

Gaine's Ship 155 

Gaine's Fort, Ala 155 

Gaine's Mills, Va 66 

Galveston, Tex 87 

Garfield, Co. Jas 37 

Gamble, Gov. A. R 42 

Garnett, Gen 109 

Garrad 130, 140 

Garrett, Gen 29 

Gardner, F 87, 90, 214 

Geneva, Switzerland 79 

Georgia 10 

Germany 25 

Gerry 108 

Gerry, Gen 108 

Gettysburg- 106, 186 

Gibbons 109 

Gillem 213 

Gillmore, Gen. G. A 112 

Gist, Gen 150 

Gladstone, Wm. E 25 

Goldsborough, Lt. M 40 

Goldsboro, N. C 160, 220 

Gordon, Gen 115, 150, 168, 193, 

197, 204, 209 

Grafting 46 

Grafton, W. V 28 

Gramberry 150 

Grand Gulf, Miss 59, 81 

Granger, Gen 115 

Grant, Gen. U. S. . . .22, 35, 50, 78, 82, 
85, 100, 118, 120, 123, 125, 128, 
151, 153, 165, 169, 171, 179, 184, 
189, 201, 205, 209. 

Great Britain 9 

Greble, Lieutenant 30 

Greeley, Horace 14 

Green 89, 96, 112 

Greenwood, Miss 79 

Grier, Gen 128 

Grierson's Raid 81, 208 

Griggs, Gen 109 

Grierson 92 

Griswaldville, Ga 163 



Grover 87, 96, 201, 191, 195 

Guerrillas 118 

Guntown, Ga 140 

H. 

Haine's Bluffs, Miss 80 

Halleck, Gen. H. W 35, 37, 46, 52, 

60, 70, 89, 105,127 

Hagerstown, Md 185 

Hamilton, S 87 

Hampton, W. V 218 

Hancock, Gen. W. S.107, 109. 165, 168 

Hard Times, Miss 81 

Hardee, Gen.48, 120, 138, 146, 163, 218 
Harper's Ferry, Va. .21, 26, 31, 74, 105 

Harris, Gov. I. G 24 

Harrison's Landing, Va 67 

Harrisonburg, Va 68 

Hartraft 204 

Hartford, Conn 9 

Hartford, Flag Ship 58, 88, 156 

Hasen, W. B 164 

Hatteras Inlent. N. C 39 

Havana 22 

Habeas Corpus Suspended 25 

Havre de Grace, Md 26 

Hayes, R. B 109, 187, 197 

Hazel Grove, Va 103 

Harney, Gen. W. S 27 

Heck, Col 124 

Heintzelman 63 

Heindman, Gen 116 

Helena, Ark 84 

Heth, Gen 107, 168 

Hicks, Gov. Thos H 24, 26 

Hilton Head, S. C 40 

Hill, D. H..74, 105, 107, 160, 166, 207 

Hindman Port 117 

Hindman, Gen 120 

Holmes, Gen 84 

Hooker, Joe.. 63, 74, 76, 77, 101, 105. 

Ill, 118, 120, 142 

Hood, Gen. J. B...107, 115, 116, 138, 

143. 145. 148, 151, 153, 159 

Howard, Gen 101, 102, 107, 138, 

163, 216 

Hulburt, S. A 7 9 

Humphreys 7 6, 108 

Hunter, Gen 38. 46, 174, 187, 189 

Hunt, H. J 108, 165 

Huttonville, Va 28 

I. 

Illinois 11, 17 

Imboden 173 

Indiana 27 

Indiana H, 127 



Indianola Gunl)oat 127 

Irish Bend 88 

Ironclads 41 

Irrepressible Conflict 9 

Irwin 195 

Island No. 10, Tonn 49 

lukM, Miss 53 

J. 

Jackson, Gov. C. F 24 

Jackson, Stonewall .... 30, 31, 64, 68, 
74, 76, 102, 103 

Jackson, Miss 81, 85 

Jacksonville, Fla 40 

James River Crossing 180 

Jayhawkers 13 

Jefferson, Thomas 10 

Jefferson City, Mo 28 

Johnston, A. S 22, 148, 50 

Johnson, B. R 48 

Johnston, Joe E 15, 22, 31, 54, 64, 

78, 81, 106, 121, 126, 128, 137, 139, 
140, 142, 143, 144, 203, 204, 219 

Johnsonville, Ga 147 

Jones, Gen. J. M 168 

Jones, Gen. S 114 

Jonesborough, Ga 146 

K. 

Kansas, Dept. of 35 

Kansas 14 

Kansas, Nebraska 12 

Kautz 172 

Kearsarg e 154 

Kearney, P 72 

Kelly's Ford, Va Ill 

Kempler, Gen 109, 110 

Kenesaw, Ga 140, 142 

Kentucky 11, 16, 24, 27, 34 

Keokuk Steamboat 112 

Keinstown, Va 68 

Kershaw 117, 191, 195 

Keyes, E. S 63 

Kilpatrick 109, 163, 217 

Kinley, Col 68 

Kingston, Ga 149 

Kinston, N. C 180 

Know-Nothings 13 

Knoxville, Tenn 118, 119, 121 

Kulp House, Ga 142 

li. 

Lackawanna, Ship 159 

La Fourche, La 61, 86 

Lane Harriet 127 

Lane, Joseph 15 

Last Conflict 221 



Laurel Hill, W. Va 28, 82 

Law 117 

Leavenworth, Kan 2 7 

Lee, R. E...22, 29, 30, 65, 68, 70, 72, 
75, 78, 101, 104, 106, 110, 165, 
167, 174, 178, 180, 191, 205, 207 

Lexington, G. B 131 

Lee and Gordon Mills, Ga 115 

Lee, Fitzhugh 83, 205 

Lee, Stephen 123 

Lewisburg, W. V 29 

Lexington 131 

Lincoln, President. . 14, 15, 16, 22, 24, 
26, 28, 29, 31, 34, 36, 39, 45, 69, 
70, 75, 105, 186, 189, 201, 204, 205, 
212. 

Little Rock, Ark 134 

Little Bethel, Va 30 

Livermore, Col. T. S 20 

Lomax 192 

London, Tenn 121 

Long-street, Gen... 107, 108, 110, 115 
116, 121, 122 

Lookout, Tenn 115 

Lovell, Gen. M 58 

Louisiana, ■ Warship 158 

Louisiana, State of 11, 22 

Lost Mt, Ga 140 

Lyon, Gen. H 33 

N. 

Macauly 195 

Madison, President 11 

Magruder, Gen. J. B 30, 34, 63 

Magoffin, Gov. B 24 

Maine 11 

Major, Gen 9 6 

Malvern Hill, Va 66 

Mansfield, Col. J. K 27, 128 

Mansfield, La 128 

Mansfield, Gen 74 

Manasassas Ram 57 

Manchester, Md 106 

Mansfield, Chief Justice 10 

Mansura Plains, Va 123, 132 

Marmaduke 134 

March to the Sea 161 

Maryland 16, 24, 27 

Maury 214 

Marshall, Mrs 73 

Marrietta, Ga 140 

Marshall, Humphries 37 

Mass. Historical Society 20 

Mason and Sidell 26 

Ma.s.sachusetts, State 9, 14 

Matagorda Bay, Tex 99 

Maximilian, Emperor 99 

Meade, Gen.... 76, 102, 105, 107, 165 



Meagher 66 

Mechanicsville, Va 65, 175 

Memphis, Tenn 49, 122, 128 

Meridian, Miss 85, 123 

Merrimac, Ram 41 

Merritt 193 

Mettaconnet, Ship 156 

Mexico 22, 99 

Midway, N. C 217 

Miles 74 

Michigan, State of 12 

Mill Springs, Ky 37 

Milroy 105 

Mellen, Ga 164 

Miliken Bend, Miss 79, 85 

Minnesota, Frigate 42 

Mine at Petersburg, Va 181 

Missionary Ridge, Ga 115 

Mississippi State 11, 16, 136 

Mississoppi, Warship 88 

Mississippi River 62, 8 5 

Missouri, State 11, 24, 27, 135, 

Missouri Compromise 11, 12 

Mitchel 52 

Mobilizing 19 

Mobile, Ala 134, 153, 155, 214 

Molineux, Col. E. L 88, 196 

Montgomery, Ala 17, 143 

Monitor 41 

Monongahela, Monitor 157 

Monitor and Merrimac 41 

Monroe, L 98 

Moorefield 188 

Morgan, Col. J. S 89, 96, 98 

Morgan, Ship 156 

Morganza Bend, La 133 

Morgan, Gen 9 8, 115 

Morris Island, S. C 113 

Morris, Cap 42 

Mosby, Col. J. S 118 

Mower, Gen 127 

Moultrie Fort 16 

Moulton, A 61, 88, 95, 128 

Muldraughs Hill 36 

Mulligan, Gen 35 

Mufreesboro, Tenn 15 

Murfresborough, Tenn 53 

Murray, James 97 

Muskets 163 



Mc 

McCann, T. H..90, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98 
100, 130, 131, 132, 133, 186, 198, 
201 

McCausland 188 

McClellan, Gen. G. B..28, 29, 30, 32, 
45, 46, 63, 65, 73, 75 



McClernand 56, 79, 83 

McCook, Gen 115, 144 

McCowan 54 

McCu'lloch, B 47 

McDowell, Gen. 1 3, 63 

McGrane, John 94, 200 

McKinley 198 

McLaw, Gen 14, ] 4, 110 

McMillan 196 

McPherson 79, 81, 83, 137, 138, 

140, 142, 144 



N. 



Napoleon III 99 

Nashville, Tenn 37, 48, 119, 151 

Natches, Miss 68, 89 

National Forces, Jan. 1, 1862 45 

Navy, U. S 19, 112, 123, 154 

Neafie 196 

Negroes as Slaves 9 

Negro Troops 8 6 

Nelson, Gen 50 

New Carthage 80 

New Hope Church, Ga 140 

New Madrid, Tenn 49 

Newmarket, Va 173 

New Orleans, La. .48, 57, 58, 61, 79, 96 

Newport News 42 

Newton, Gen 107 

Nims' Battery 89, 128 

Ninth Congress 10 

Nineteenth Army Corps.. 87, 92, 94, 

123, 127, 133, 134, 186, 192, 193, 

195, 201 
Ninetieth N. Y. V 89, 96, 97, 98, 

100, 130, 186, 187, 195, 196, 197, 

198, 199 

Norfolk Navy Yard, Va 27, 63 

North Anna, Va 174 

North Carolina 16 



O. 

Oak Hill 33 

Ohio 11, 27 

Ohio, Dept. of 37 

Okalona, Miss 124 

Oldrins, F. H 99 

Ooslanaula 138 

Opelousas, La 89 

Opequon 191 

Opdyke, Emmerson 150 

Orchard Knob, Tenn 120 

Ord, Gen 53 

Ossipee, Warship 157 



6 



p. 

Paducha, Ky 36, 124 

1 aice Ferry, Ga 143 

Paine, Gen. H. E 61 

Palmer 145, 153 

Pamunkey liiver, Va 175 

Pamlico Sound 40 

Pantville 37 

Parkersburgh, W. Va 28 

I'atterson, Gen. R 29, 31 

Pea Ridge, Mo 47 

P&dee, N. C 218 

Prgram 29. 168. 193 

i'emberCon 78, 82, 83 

Pennsylvania 27 

Pepper Box Strategy 37 

Perry, E. C 59 

Perry ville, Ky 53 

Petersburg, Va.l72. 180, 203, 206, 207 

Phillippi, W. Va 28 

r-ickett's Charge 108, 110, 205 

Peninsular Campaign, Va 65 

Pierce, Gen 37 

Pillow, G. J 48 

Pine Tree Creek 143 

Pine Mt., Ga 140 

Pipe Creek 107 

Pittigrew .*.... 1 1 

Pittsburg Landing, Tenn 50 

Pleasonton, Gen 103 

Pleasant Hill, La 123, 129 

Pocotaligo, S. C 113 

Poe 216 

Poker Game Under Fire 97 

Polk, Gen. L. .35, 36, 116, 122, 138, 141 

Pope, Gen. J 35, 48, 49, 70 

Porter, Gen. J ; 7 4, 82 

Porter, Ad. D. D...44, 60, 64, 80, 87 

89, 127, 131, 155 

Port Hudson, La. . . .87, 89, 90, 93, 94 

Port Royal, Warship 156 

Port Royal, S. C 40 

Presidential Elections, 1856 3 

1860 IG, 16 

1864 200 

Prentiss, Gen. B. M 51 

Prentiss 84 

Preston, Gen 116 

Price, Gen. Sterling. ... 28, 33, 35, 47, 
50, 52, 123, 128, 134, 135 

Privateering 79, 154 

Proclamation of Emancipation ... 101 

Potomac River 21 

Potterfield, Gen 28 



R. 

Ramseur 188, 193, 198 

Ream Station, Va 183 

Red Clay, Ga 138 

Red River, La 88, 123, 127 

Re-Enlistment 99 

Republican Convention, 1856 73 

Resaca, Ga 138, 139 

Results of War 220 

Revolutionary War 10 

Reynolds, Gen 29, 101, 104, 107 

Rhode Island, Warship 44 

Rhodes 192 

Richmond, Va...l7, 29, 64, 202, 210 

Ringgold, Ga 138 

Rio Grande River, Tex 9 9 

Roanoke, Frigate 42 

Roanoke Island, N. C 40 

Roberson River, Va Ill 

Rock Fish Gap, Va 193 

Rockville, Md 185, 187 

Rodes 167 

Roddy 215 

Rome, Ga 138, 140 

Romney, Va 31 

Root, Poet 161 

Rosecrans, Wm. S..22, 29, 46, 53, 78, 
114, 115, 118, 135 

Rosser 207 

Rosswell, Ga 120, 143 

Ro.ssville, Tenn 115 

Rossville Gap, Ga 115, 120 

Rousseau 143 



Q. 

Queen of the West 60, 87, 89 

Queen Victoria 26 



S. 

Sabine Pass, La 99 

Sabine Cross Roads, La 123, 128 

Salem, Va 104 

Sanford, J, F. A 13 

San Salvador, Brazil 155 

Savage Station, Vt 66 

savannah, P'rivateer 154 

Scarytown, W. Va 29 

Schofield 14, 136, 150, 151, 153, 

159, 160, 203 

Scott, Gen. W 3, 16, 45, 125 

Sedgewick, Gen, 101, 102, 104, 107, 167 

Seger, Gunboat 61 

Selma, Gunboat 15, 56 

Selma, Miss 122 

Secession 9 

Semmesport 133 

Seminary Ridge, Pa 106 

Semmes, Cap. R 88, 154 

Seventeenth Army Corps 79 

Seventh N. Y. Militia 2 6 

Seven Day Battle 65 

Seven Pines, Va 64 



Seward, W. H 9, 2 6 

Seymour 169 

Shaler, Gen 104 

Shanandoah Valley, Va 190 

Sharpsburg, Md 74 

Shaurman, Lt.-Col 130 

Shenandoah Valley, Va 21, 30 

Sherman, Thos. W 40, 87, 91 

Sheridan, Philip.... 53, 59, 165, 169, 

170, 174, 185, 190, 198 

Sherman Wm. T. ..50, 52, 54, 79, 80, 

84, 118, 120, 123, 126, 136, 138, 

140, 143, 149, 159, 161, 163, 175, 

203, 204, 216, 218, 221, 222 

Shields, Jas 63, 68 

Shiloh 51 

Ship Gap, Ga 138 

Shreveport, La 122, 128 

Shunk 196 

Sickles, D. B....87, 104, 107, 126, 165 

Simmesport, La 133 

Sixth Mass. Militia 2 6 

Sixteenth Army Corps 79 

Slaves Contraband of War 34 

C-avery in Border States 34 

Slavery 9, 10, 11 

Sleight, Gen 115 

Slocum, Gen... 101, 104, 107, 148, 163 

Smart, Major 130, 199 

Smith, A. J 125, 127, 129, 133, 

141, 149. 151, 153, 214 

Smith, Gen. C. F 50 

Smith, Gen. G. W 163 

Smith, Kirby 89, 129, 134 

Smith, Wm. Sooy 123, 124 

Smyrna, Ga 142 

Snake Creek Gap, Ga 138 

Sommersett, James 10 

Soap Creek, Ga 143 

South Carolina 10 

South Mountains, Va 73 

Spies 24 

Spottsylvania, Va 171 

Spying 54 

Stanton, Secretary War.... 46, 77, 94 

Standard, Gen 109 

Star of the West 17 

Slate Rights 9, 11 

State Sovereignty 9 

Steedman 152 

Steel, Gen 123, 127, 134, 214 

St. Joseph, Mo 27 

Stephens, 1 72 

Etcphens, A. H 17, 106 

Stevenson 120 

Stevenson Station, Va 201 

Stewart 117, 120 

Strahle 150 

St. Lawrence, Frigate 42 



St. Marye's Heights, Va....l01, 104 

Stone, Gen. Chas. P 33 

Stoneman 66, 102, 104, 145 

Stowe, Harriet B 25 

Stringham, S. H 39 

Stuart, J. E. B 65, 75, 102, 109. 

117, 168, 169 

Sturgis 12 5, 141 

Sumter, Fort, S. C 17, 113, 154 

Sumner 63, 74, 76, 77, 110 

T. 

Taliaferro 219 

Talahoma 54 

Taney, Chief Justice R. B 14, 25 

Tariff 9 

Tattnal, Com. J 40 

Taylor, R 61, 78, 88, 93, 96, 98, 

128, 131, 133, 210 

Teche, La 61, 89, -127 

Tecumseh, Monitor 156 

Tenas River 79 

Tennessee' 11, 16, 24, 47, 156 

Territories 11 

Terry 159 

Texas 12, 22, 99 

Thirteenth Corps 98 

Thibodeaux, La 61 

Thoburn 195 

Thomas, Gen. G. H..36, 37, 115, 117, 

118, 120, 136, 137, 140, 149, 151, 

153, 161 

Thompson, Jeff M 27 

Thoroughfare Gap, Va 72 

Tilghman 48, 82 

Tinelli, F. B . . . . : 97 

Todd Tavern 170 

Torbert 193, 201 

Tourtellett. Col 148 

Trent Affair 26 

Turney Ferry, Ga 142 

Turner, Md 74 

Tupelo, Ga 141 

Tuscaloosa, Privateer 154 

Tyler, Gunboat 60 

Tybee Island, S. C 40 

V. 

Uncle Tom's Cabin 25 

Union 9, 11 

Upton 171 



Vallandingham, C. 1 25 

Van Dorn, E 47, 50 

Vermont 11 

Vicksburg, Miss 54, 80, 84 



Vincent, Gen 108 

Virginia 10. 16, 18, 22, 24 

Virsinia Military Institute 60 



W. 

Wachusett, Warship 155 

Wadsworth 63, 107, 168 

Wagner, Fort 112 

Walcutt, Gen 163 

Wallace, Gen. Lewis 31, 51, 185 

Walker, Gen 115, 120, 128 

War Statistics 20 

War Democrats 2 5 

Warren 165, 167 

Warrentown, Miss 59 

War Zone 21 

Water Drinking 129 

Washburn, Gen 98 

Washington, George 125 

Washington, D. C. . .46, 69, 77, 186, 187 

Waynesboro, Ga 163 

Webb, Gen 109 

Weehawken, Gunboat 96, 112 

W^eitzel, G..61, 86, 91, 96, 99, 158, 208 

Wells, Gideon 39 

Western and Atlantic R. R 138 

West Miss. Dept 123 

West Point, Md 124 

West Virginia 22, 28 



Wharton 195 

Wheeler, Jos 115, 117, 219 

White House. Va 64 

Whiting, Gen 154 

White Oak Road, Va . . . 205 

Wilcox 110. 168 

Wilderness Battle 167 

Williams, T 58, 60, 63 

Wilmington. N. C 157, 159 

Wilson Cavalry 149, 215 

Wilson's Creek 33 

Wisconsin 72 

Wise, Gov 28, 41 

Wofford, Gen 169 

Wolf, Serg 97 

Woodford 130 

Woods, Gen 151 

Worden, J. S 43 

Wright 186, 192, 196 

Y. 

Yankee Cheese Box 43 

Yazoo River 79 

York, Pa 105 

Yorktown, Va 63 

Young, Gen 175 

Z. 

Zollicoffer Killed 37 





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